The Consumer Expenditure Survey (CE) is a Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS)

Bureau of Labor Statistics

The Bureau of Labor Statistics is a unit of the United States Department of Labor. It is the principal fact-finding agency for the U.S. government in the broad field of labor economics and statistics. The BLS is a governmental statistical agency that collects, processes, analyzes, and...

 survey

Statistical survey

Survey methodology is the field that studies surveys, that is, the sample of individuals from a population with a view towards making statistical inferences about the population using the sample. Polls about public opinion, such as political beliefs, are reported in the news media in democracies....

 that collects information on the buying habits of U.S. consumer

Consumer

Consumer is a broad label for any individuals or households that use goods generated within the economy. The concept of a consumer occurs in different contexts, so that the usage and significance of the term may vary.-Economics and marketing:...

s. The program consists of two components — the Interview Survey and the Diary Survey — each with its own sample

Sample (statistics)

In statistics, a sample is a subset of a population. Typically, the population is very large, making a census or a complete enumeration of all the values in the population impractical or impossible. The sample represents a subset of manageable size...

. The surveys collect data on expenditures, income

Income

Income is the consumption and savings opportunity gained by an entity within a specified time frame, which is generally expressed in monetary terms. However, for households and individuals, "income is the sum of all the wages, salaries, profits, interests payments, rents and other forms of earnings...

, and consumer unit characteristics.

Interview Survey

For the Interview Survey, each consumer unit is interviewed once per quarter, for five consecutive quarters. This survey is designed to capture large purchases, such as spending on rent property and vehicles and those that occur on a regular basis such as rent or utilities. Since April of 2003, data have been collected using a Computer Assisted Personal Interview (CAPI). Prior to that, interviews were administered using paper and pencil. An example of the most recent CAPI instrument is available on the Consumer Expenditure Survey website.

Diary Survey

The Diary Survey is self administered and each consumer unit keeps a diary for two one-week periods. This survey is meant to capture small frequently purchased items and allows respondents to record all purchases such as spending for food and beverages, tobacco, personal care products, and nonprescription drugs and supplies. The most recent Diary Survey form is available on the Consumer Expenditure Survey website.

Consumer Unit

A consumer unit consists of any of the following: (1) All members of a particular household who are related by blood, marriage, adoption, or other legal arrangements; (2) a person living alone or sharing a household with others or living as a roomer in a private home or lodging house or in permanent living quarters in a hotel or motel, but who is financially independent; or (3) two or more persons living together who use their incomes to make joint expenditure decisions. Financial independence is determined by spending behavior with regard to the three major expense categories: Housing, food, and other living expenses. To be considered financially independent, the respondent must provide at least two of the three major expenditure categories, either entirely or in part.

The terms consumer unit, family, and household are often used interchangeably for convenience. However, the proper technical term for purposes of the Consumer Expenditure Survey is consumer unit.

Integrated Results

Data from the Interview Survey and the Diary Survey are combined to provide a complete account of expenditures and income. In some cases data are unique to a particular survey. For example, the Diary Survey provides greater detail of food expenditures than the Interview Survey, and the Interview Survey collects data on automobile repairs which are not found in the Diary Survey. For items collected in both surveys the BLS selects which data to use by statistical methods.

Survey Sample

The Consumer Expenditure Survey is designed to be representative of the entire U.S. civilian non-institutionalized population, and includes both urban and rural areas. The sampling frame is currently generated from the 2000 Census 100-Percent Detail File. The data are collected for the BLS by the United States Census Bureau

United States Census Bureau

The United States Census Bureau is the government agency that is responsible for the United States Census. It also gathers other national demographic and economic data...

. Approximately 7,000 usable interviews are collected from the Interview Survey each quarter and approximately 7,000 usable diaries are collected for the Diary Survey per year. In 2005 the response rate was 71.0 percent for the Diary Survey and 74.5 percent for the Interview Survey.

Confidentiality

Personal information such as names, addresses, and phone numbers are never published. Data collected from the survey is protected by Title 13 of the United States Code

Title 13 of the United States Code

Title 13 of the United States Code outlines the role of the United States Census in the United States Code.-External links:*, via United States Government Printing Office*, via Cornell University...

. Each person with access to confidential information, including US Census Bureau field representatives and BLS employees, are sworn for life to protect this information. Violations of the law are a felony punishable by a prison sentence of up to five years and a fine of up to $250,000.

Recent Data

Average annual expenditures per consumer unit fell 2.0 percent in 2010 following a decrease of 2.8 percent in 2009, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported today. While spending fell in 2010, prices for goods and services increased 1.6 percent from 2009 to 2010, as measured by the average annual change in the Consumer Price Index (CPI-U). This was the second consecutive year that there has been a drop in spending. The 2010 level of
average annual expenditures, $48,109, was lower than the 2006 amount of $48,398.

2010 Consumer Expenditure Survey Data were released on September 27, 2011.

Uses of Survey Data

These data from the Consumer Expenditure Survey are used in a number of different ways by a variety of users. One important use of the survey is for the periodic revision of the Bureau of Labor Statistics’ Consumer Price Index (CPI)

Consumer price index

A consumer price index measures changes in the price level of consumer goods and services purchased by households. The CPI, in the United States is defined by the Bureau of Labor Statistics as "a measure of the average change over time in the prices paid by urban consumers for a market basket of...

. The Bureau uses survey results to select new market baskets of goods and services for the CPI every two years, to determine the relative importance of CPI components, and to derive new cost weights for the market baskets. Market researchers find the data useful in analyzing the demand for groups of goods and services. The data allow them to track spending trends of different types of consumer units. Government and private agencies use the data to study the welfare of particular segments of the population, such as those consumer units with a reference person aged 65 and older or under age 25, or for low-income consumer units. Economic policymakers use the data to study the impact of policy changes on the welfare of different socioeconomic groups. Researchers use the data in a variety of studies, including those that focus on the spending behavior of different family types, trends in expenditures on various expenditure components including new types of goods and services, gift-giving behavior, consumption studies, and historical spending trends.

Limitations

Both the Diary and Interview Surveys utilize a representative sample to measure the buying habits of Americans. Only a small percentage of the US population is being surveyed, and therefore the data are subject to sampling errors. The division publishes standard error tables on their website. Non-sampling errors include, but are not limited to, respondents who are either unwilling or unable to provide accurate answers, mistakes made in collecting or recording obtained data, and estimation of missing data.

Microdata

Data for individual consumer units in both the Diary and Interview Surveys are available on CD-ROM

CD-ROM

A CD-ROM is a pre-pressed compact disc that contains data accessible to, but not writable by, a computer for data storage and music playback. The 1985 “Yellow Book” standard developed by Sony and Philips adapted the format to hold any form of binary data....

from the Division Consumer Expenditure Surveys.

History

The Consumer Expenditure Survey became a continuous survey in 1980. From the late 1800’s until 1980 the survey had been administered at approximately ten-year intervals.

External links

• Consumer Expenditure Survey page of the Bureau of Labor Statistics
  • Forms used in the survey (both Diary Survey and Computer Assisted Personal Interview (CAPI) Survey
• NBER archive of Consumer Expenditure Survey microdata extracts, 1980-2003