Consumer Expenditure Survey
The Consumer Expenditure Survey (CE) is a national account conducted by the Bureau of Labor Statistics of the United States Department of Labor and administered by the Census Bureau. The program consists of two surveys — the Interview and the Diary survey — which provides information on the buying habits of American consumers. These surveys collect data on expenditures, income, and consumer unit demographic characteristics. Electronic forms that demonstrate the types of questions asked can be found the CE Survey page on the BLS's website.
Interview Survey
The Interview Survey is administered over a period of five quarters and collects expenditures from the previous three months. This survey is meant to capture large purchases, such as spending on furniture, clothing, and utilities.
Diary Survey
The Diary Survey is self administered and captures purchases by a consumer unit (CU) over a two week period. The Diary allows respondents to record all purchases such as spending on food at home, food away from home, clothing, and other.
Uses of survey data
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's Consumer Price Index (CPI). The Bureau uses survey results to select new market baskets of goods and services for the CPI, 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.
External sources
- 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