Yahoo Finance 
Graduate Gifts Cost $4.77 Billion
Nearly a third of U.S. adults bought a gift for at least one graduate this year, spending an estimated $4.77 billion in the process, an all-time high. The most popular gift? Cash, something every graduate never has enough of.
The average shopper expects to spend $102.50, and adults ages 45 through 54 will spend the most on a gift: an average of $126.43. Because the average shopper is buying gifts for about two graduates, the average gift per graduate is $53.55.
The data come from a survey conducted on behalf of the National Retail Federation (NRF) and included adults over 18 and high school, college, and grad school graduates.
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The NRF has been conducting this survey for 10 years now, and the low point in spending per graduate came in 2009, when the average gift was valued at $45.33. The spending per gift has since been climbing more or less steadily to reach this year’s total.
Nearly 57% of graduates get a cash present. Aside from cash the most popular item is a card, purchased by nearly 42% of gift-givers (likely to hold a check or cash?). About 30% of graduates receive gift cards, about 13% receive apparel, and about 10% receive electronics.
Nearly 5% of gift buyers said that they were giving other kinds of gifts. Cars, perhaps, new or used? Paid-off student loans which averaged around $33,000 per student in 2014 for those college grads? Whatever these “other” gifts are, chances are they raise the average.
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