A recent study conducted by ICR indicates that teenage girls report outspending their male counterparts. Teenage girls (12 to 17 years old) report spending $47 per week vs. $45 per week for boys. And where do they get their money?

The report indicates that 87% of teenage girls get their spending money from their parents vs. 77% of boys. A higher number of teenage boys (25%) cite regular or part-time jobs as the source of their income. But this gap is closing fast with 22% of girls also reporting that they have a regular or part-time job – the smallest gap in reported source of spending money in 5 years.

“The current generation of teenage girls has tremendous buying power,” says Melissa Herrmann, EVP and Business Leader of ICR's Teen Research Group. “The evidence is starting to show up in the numbers but we have seen this in qualitative studies for the past few years.”

Other Key Findings:

  • More teenage boys (73% vs. 65%) get money from “odd jobs” and the gap has grown in the last 5 years.
  • Teen Girls are more likely to get an allowance (64%) than teen boys (59%)
  • Older teens (15 to 17 years of age) spend $59 per week vs. $46 per week for their younger counterparts (12-14 years of age). But this gap has narrowed over the last 5 years.

The ICR TeenEXCEL study was conducted by telephone from March 16 to July 20, 2005, among a nationally representative sample of 1,366 teenagers ages 12 to 17. The margin of error is +/- 2.65 percent.