Map: States with the best and worst tippers in 2025

Americans spent a whopping $77.6 billion on tips for eating away from home in 2023, but some states fared far better than others on how big those tips were.

A Lending Tree study found that Americans are spending more and more on dining out: On average, more than 55% of food budgets are spent on food eaten away from home, including full-service restaurants, limited-service restaurants, fast food, bars, hotels and vending machines.

One caveat: Lending Tree says the rankings are based on the percentage of spending on tips at all places where food is eaten away from home, so people who dine more at full-service restaurants in one state will spend more on tips than people who dine more at fast food or limited-service restaurants in another state.

Customer using Chowbus handheld checkout system and choosing tip, Queens, New York. (Photo by: Lindsey Nicholson/UCG/Universal Images Group via Getty Images)

Where do people spend the most on dining out?

By the numbers:

Washington, D.C. has the highest per-capita spending on dining out, with DC residents spending an estimated $10,291 per person annually on food away from home. That’s far more than Nevada, which ranks No. 2 at $6,752 a year.

Washington, DC: $10,291 a year
Nevada: $6,752 a year
Hawaii: $6,628 a year
California: $5,072 a year
Massachusetts: $4,626 a year
Colorado: $4,579 a year
New York: $4,424 a year
Rhode Island: $4,412 a year
New Hampshire: $4,224 a year
Washington: $4,182 a year

Where do people spend the least on dining out?

Here are the states that spend the least on dining out each year, according to Lending Tree:

West Virginia: $2,597 a year
Iowa: $2,760 a year
Wisconsin: $2,848 a year
Arkansas: $2,877 a year
Alabama: $2,898 a year
North Dakota: $2,918 a year
Michigan: $2,918 a year
Mississippi: $2,927 a year
Kansas: $3,031 a year
Pennsylvania: $3,091 a year

States with the biggest tipping rates

Local perspective:

New Hampshire leads the nation in its tipping rates, with 16.07% of away-from-home food spending going to tips. That’s four times as much as the state with the worst tipping rates.

Here are the states with the best tipping rates: