With graduation season in full swing, young adults are moving on to the next chapter of their lives and heading off to school or starting new jobs. As graduates celebrate reaching these milestones, their friends and family are joining them, with gifts in hand.
Most spending seasons far surpass springtime graduation, but each year retailers large and small see big business driven by spending on gifts for graduates across the country. According to NRF’s Graduation Spending Survey conducted by Prosper Insights & Analytics, the average person buying graduation gifts will spend $102.50 and will shop for approximately two graduates. Overall spending on electronic items, gift cards, apparel and other items will reach $4.77 billion, an all-time high in the survey’s 10-year history.
Type Of Gifts Plan To Buy For Graduation 
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Only those who plan to purchase a gift for one or more graduates answered this question. 
Charts from the NRF Foundation’s Retail Insight Center. To access this data and more research please visit the Retail Insight Center.
To make the transition to the “real world” a bit smoother, friends and family will tip their hats to the grads by giving a little extra green. The survey found more than half will give cash to help bulk up savings. More than 40 percent will give a card, 13 percent will give apparel and more than 10 percent will buy electronics, up from 8 percent last year. Adults 45-54 years old will shell out the most to graduates this year, spending an average of $126.43.
While their future may be uncertain, graduates can count on receiving plenty of gifts from friends and family as they head to college, graduate school or into the workforce.