Consumer Expenditures

November 25, 2008
Average annual expenditures per consumer unit rose 2.6 percent in 2007 following an increase of 4.3 percent in 2006. Moderate increases in spending on housing (3.4 percent), transportation (2.9 percent), and food (0.4 percent), contributed to the small increase in 2007.

• News Release
• NEW CE News Releases Issued by BLS Regional Offices

Reports

• Spending on Cell Phone Services Rapidly Approaching That of Residential Phone Services
• Consumer Expenditures Reports
  • Consumer Expenditures Annual Reports
    • Consumer Expenditures in 2006 (annual report) (PDF 114K)

CE Database

Database Name	Special Notice	Top Picks	One Screen	Multi- Screen	Tables	Text Files
Tutorials: For help, try these tutorials
Consumer Expenditure Survey (CE)

 

More Tools

• Series Report--Already know the series identifier for the statistic you want? Use this shortcut to retrieve your data.
• Text files (FTP)--For those who want it all. Download a flat file of the entire database or large subset of the database.

Tables (1984 through 2007)

One Year Tables

CURRENT EXPENDITURE TABLES

• Age of reference person (TXT) (PDF 21K)
• Composition of consumer unit (TXT) (PDF 22K)
• Education of reference person (TXT) (PDF 22K)
• Higher income before taxes (TXT) (PDF 20K)
• Hispanic or Latino origin of reference person (TXT) (PDF 17K)
• Housing tenure and type of area (TXT) (PDF 20K)
• Income before taxes (TXT) (PDF 22K)
• Number of earners in consumer unit (TXT) (PDF 20K)
• Occupation of reference person (TXT) (PDF 23K)
• Population size of area of residence (TXT) (PDF 20K)
• Quintiles of income before taxes (TXT) (PDF 19K)
• Race of reference person (TXT) (PDF 19K)
• Region of residence (TXT) (PDF 18K)
• Size of consumer unit (TXT) (PDF 19K)
• Selected age of reference person (TXT) (PDF 20K)

Previous Years »

CURRENT EXPENDITURE SHARES TABLES

• Age of reference person (TXT) (PDF 16K)
• Composition of consumer unit (TXT) (PDF 17K)
• Education of reference person (TXT) (PDF 18K)
• Higher income before taxes (TXT) (PDF 16K)
• Hispanic or Latino origin of reference person (TXT) (PDF 14K)
• Housing tenure and type of area (TXT) (PDF 16K)
• Income before taxes (TXT) (PDF 17K)
• Number of earners in consumer unit (TXT) (PDF 17K)
• Occupation of reference person (TXT) (PDF 18K)
• Quintiles of income before taxes (TXT) (PDF 14K)
• Race of reference person (TXT) (PDF 15K)
• Region of residence (TXT) (PDF 14K)
• Size of consumer unit (TXT)(PDF 16K)

Previous Years »

CURRENT AGGREGATE EXPENDITURE SHARES TABLES

• Age of reference person (TXT) (PDF 19K)
• Composition of consumer unit (TXT) (PDF 20K)
• Education of reference person (TXT) (PDF 20K)
• Higher income before taxes (TXT) (PDF 19K)
• Hispanic or Latino origin of reference person (TXT) (PDF 17K)
• Housing tenure and type of area (TXT) (PDF 20K)
• Income before taxes (TXT) (PDF 20K)
• Number of earners in consumer unit (TXT) (PDF 18K)
• Occupation of reference person (TXT) (PDF 20K)
• Quintiles of income before taxes (TXT) (PDF 18K)
• Race of reference person (TXT) (PDF 18K)
• Region of residence (TXT) (PDF 17K)
• Size of consumer unit (TXT) (PDF 18K)

Previous Years »

Additional CE Data Tables »

• Public Use Microdata
• Public Use Microdata Documentation
  • 2006 Public Use Interview Survey Microdata Documentation (PDF 830K)
  • 2006 Public Use Diary Survey Microdata Documentation (PDF 349K)
  • Archives

Current Survey Forms

• Diary Survey Form 2005-08 (PDF 363K)
• NEW Computer Assisted Diary Household Characteristics Questionnaire 2006-08
• Computer Assisted Diary Household Characteristics Questionnaire 2004-05
• Diary Survey Information Booklet 2005-08 (PDF 74K)
• Diary Household Characteristics Questionnaire 2003 (PDF 255K)
• Diary Survey Information Booklet 2004 (PDF 139K)
• Diary Survey Information Booklet 2003 (PDF 64K)
• NEW Computer Assisted Personal Interview (CAPI) Survey 2008 — includes economic stimulus questions starting in June 2008
• NEW Computer Assisted Personal Interview (CAPI) Survey 2007
• NEW Interview Survey Information Booklet 2007-08 (PDF 309K)
• Computer Assisted Personal Interview (CAPI) Survey 2006
• Interview Survey Information Booklet 2006 (PDF 203K)
• Interview Survey Information Booklet 2005 (PDF 147K)
• Computer Assisted Personal Interview (CAPI) Survey 2005
• Computer Assisted Personal Interview (CAPI) Survey 2004
• Interview Survey Information Booklet 2004 (PDF 308K)
• Computer Assisted Personal Interview (CAPI) Survey 2003
• Interview Survey Information Booklet 2003 (PDF 169K)
• Interview Survey Form 2001 (PDF 1,625K)
• Interview Control Card (PDF 106K)

• UPDATED BLS Handbook of Methods, Chapter 16, Consumer Expenditures and Income (HTML) (PDF)
• NEW Consumer Expenditure Survey Anthology, 2008 (PDF 1.8 MB)
• Consumer Expenditure Survey Anthology, 2005 (PDF 1.2 MB)
• Consumer Expenditure Survey Anthology, 2003 (PDF 2.7 MB)
• Monthly Labor Review Articles by CE staff
• Issues in Labor Statistics
• Economic Working Papers by CE staff
• 100 Years of U.S. Consumer Spending: Data for the Nation, New York City, and Boston

People Are Asking...

1. Does BLS have information about household spending on cell phone services?
2. What is the most recent Consumer Expenditure Survey Annual Report?
3. How do I contact the CE group?
4. Are CE standard error tables available?
5. How do you use the standard errors in the CE?
6. How does income imputation affect CE publications?

Frequently Asked Questions

1. What is the Consumer Expenditure Survey?
2. How is the Consumer Expenditure Survey used?
3. What is a consumer unit?
4. Who is the reference person?
5. What types of data are available and in what form?
6. What geographic areas are covered?
7. Is income information available from other sources?
8. Does the Consumer Expenditure Survey include information on assets and liabilities?
9. Are historical data from the Consumer Expenditure Survey available?
10. How are the Consumer Expenditure Survey data collected?

All CE FAQs »

• NEW CE Note to 1980 through 2006 CE Public Use Microdata users
• CE Note to 2005 CE Public Use Microdata users
• CE Note to 1999-2005 CE Public Use Microdata users
• Income Imputation Introduced with 2004 Data
• User's Guide to Income Imputation in the CE (PDF 263K)

Other BLS Programs

• Consumer Price Indexes --monthly data on changes in the prices paid by urban consumers for a representative basket of goods and services.

Other Useful Links

• Bureau of Economic Analysis
• Census Bureau's Survey of Income and Program Participation (SIPP)
• Census Bureau's Household and Housing Statistics --Income and Poverty Data
• Census Bureau's Population Division

Methods of Contact

The economists and administrative personnel of the Consumer Expenditure Survey staff are available Monday through Friday to respond to inquires. Please use any of the methods below to contact the CE National Office. Inquires should include your name, and phone number, fax number, mailing address, or e-mail address, along with a brief message.

Due to unanticipated budget constraints, the CE mailing list is no longer being maintained, and printed copies of future publications will not be available until further notice. Individual copies of existing printed materials can still be mailed upon request.

Telephone
    (202) 691-6900

Due to the high volume of information requests received each day, incoming calls may be connected to the office's voice mail or transferred to an economist's voice mail.  

FAX
    (202) 691-7006
 

Mail
    Bureau of Labor Statistics
   Consumer Expenditure Surveys — Branch of Information and Analysis
    Postal Square Building, Room 3985
    2 Massachusetts Avenue, N.E.
    Washington, DC 20212-0001
 

E Mail
  Contact us