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Survey of Consumer Finances
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2001 Survey of Consumer Finances

Summary Description | Documentation
Survey Data | Replicate Weight Files


Summary Description of 2001 Survey Results
Three types of summary output are available on this page: a Federal Reserve Bulletin article; two sets of tables, in Excel format, that provide estimates comparable to the tables included in the Bulletin article, one using the the internal SCF data and another using the public SCF data; and a chartbook that includes time series charts using triennial SCF data covering the period 1989 to 2001.

Recent Changes in U.S. Family Finances: Evidence from the 1998 and 2001 Survey of Consumer Finances
Ana M. Aizcorbe, Arthur B. Kennickell, and Kevin B. Moore
Federal Reserve Bulletin, vol. 89 (January 2003), pp. 1-32.
Article (149 KB PDF) | Article (722 KB Postscript)
Erratum

Expanded versions of the tables in the Bulletin article, in Excel format
The most recent version of the tables based on the internal and public data are located here.

SCF Chartbook
See the 2004 version for a description.



Documentation of 2001 Survey Data
Four types of technical documentation for the 2001 SCF are available on this page: the 2001 codebook, a questionnaire-style summary of the survey instrument, the household information packet (HIP), and an executable copy of the computer-assisted personal interviewing (CAPI) program. In addition, technical working papers on the survey methodology are available.

Codebook for the 2001 Survey of Consumer Finances
The codebook contains the text, variable names, and responses for the questions asked in the survey. Also provided are a brief summary of the technical features of the survey design; a copy of the source code for the CAPI program, a concordance of variable names in the final data set and those used in the CAPI program; two programs that calculate standard errors for regression models and another program to calculate standard errors for simple statistics such as weighted medians, all three of which account for sampling error and mutliple imputation; and a list of the variables included in the public data set.
Codebook (3.7 MB ASCII)
Codebook last updated April 25, 2007

Questionnaire-Style Summary of the 2001 SCF CAPI Instrument
This document is based on the questionnaire for the 1992 SCF, the last of the surveys for which a paper questionnaire was used. The questionnaire has been altered to include changes to the instrument since 1992, and each variable in the final data set has been labeled with its corresponding SCF X-variable number. In most cases, the question skip instructions have not been updated. Other relatively small inconsistencies with the actual CAPI instrument also remain. The codebook is the appropriate place to turn for the fine details of the structure of the data, the exact text of the questions asked, and the full list of official codes. Nevertheless, the questionnaire format of this document may be useful for understanding the overall organization of the survey. At key points during the administration of the interview, interviewers show the respondents a series of cards containing information relevant to framing or answering a question. Most of this information is displayed as part of the question text or response categories, but some is more general.
Questionnaire-style summary (8.3 MB PDF)
Showcards (78 KB PDF)
Document last updated February 24, 2006

Household Information Packet (HIP)
The 2001 HIP contains forms used for the non-interview reports, the household listing, the first contact with the household, and the record of calls made on the household.
HIP for AP cases (82 KB PDF) | HIP for LS cases (72 KB PDF)

Executable Computer-Assisted Personal Interviewing (CAPI) Program
The 2001 survey data were collected using CAPI. A copy of the source code for the program is included in the codebook above. To see more directly the process faced by survey interviewers, use the executable version of the CAPI program posted below. The main program files are stored in a self-extracting zip file. A short README file describes the installation and running of the program on a DOS or Windows system. The version of the program offered here has been altered so that no data are saved upon exiting the program. No warranty is made for the performance of these files.
Note: CAPI program may not be compatible with all operating systems.
CAPI installation README (4 KB ASCII)
CAPI Program Files (1.9 MB EXE)

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2001 Survey Data
Two general types of data set are provided: first, the full public data set is given in SAS, Stata, and ASCII formats; second, an extract file of summary variables is provided in Excel format. All of these files are provided in compressed form as WINZIP files. (See H.15 for software to uncompress WINZIP files.)

Missing data in the survey have been imputed five times using a multiple imputation technique. The information is stored in five separate and internally coherent imputation replicates (implicates). Thus, for the 4,449 families interviewed for the survey, there are 22,245 records in the data set. Seven observations were deleted for the public version of the data set for purposes of disclosure avoidance; thus, there are 22,210 records in the public data set for 4,442 families. The codebook provides more detail on the structure of the data set and the steps taken for disclosure avoidance.

Full Public Data Set: SAS format
The full final survey data are available to the public in two SAS transport formats that may be used with the current version of SAS. (Help is available for importing these files as SAS data sets.) One version is created using PROC CPORT; this is the smaller of the two files. The second one is created using PROC COPY with the EXPORT option; this file may be particularly convenient for users who do not have access to SAS, but who do have some means of translating the data set to another form using a software package that does not support CPORT files.

WARNING: Some browser versions will download these files in unzipped form; the resulting PROC CPORT transport file will require 202 MB of disk space and the resulting PROC COPY transport file will require 512 MB of disk space. When uncompressed and imported as a V9.1.3 engine SAS data set, these files require 607 MB of disk space.

Main survey data: CPORT version (9.1 MB ZIP)
Main survey data: COPY/EXPORT version (17.8 MB ZIP)
Data last updated March 5, 2007

Full Public Data Set: Stata format
A second version of the full public data set is given as a Stata data set. Because the data set contains approximately 5000 variables, users will need to use Stata SE if they wish to import all the variables. Users of standard Stata will need to specify a subset of variables when using the data set.

WARNING: Some browser versions will download these files in unzipped form; the resulting Stata file will require 214 MB of disk space.

Main survey data: Stata (12.2 MB ZIP)
Data last updated March 5, 2007

Full Public Data Set: ASCII format
A third version of the full public data set is given in ASCII format. The variables included have exactly the same values as those in the SAS and Stata data sets. The layout of the variables is given by a format file, which is provided in Excel and tab-delimited formats. Note that under certain operating systems the end of record marker will add one character to the record length listed in the format file.

WARNING: Some browser versions will download these files in unzipped form; the resulting ASCII file will require 1.1 GB of disk space.

Main survey data: ASCII (31.7 MB ZIP)
Map of variables: Excel (622 KB)
Map of variables: Tab-delimited (200 KB)
Data last updated March 5, 2007

Tabling Wizard and Extract of the Full Public Data Set
The extract file of the survey data is provided in Excel format. The summary variables included correspond to those used in the analysis reported in the Bulletin article available above. All dollar values are given in 2001 dollars. The definitions of the summary variables are given in a worksheet included with the program and more detailed defintions are provided in the SAS program used to create the summary variables. Two versions of the extract are provided. One includes a tabling wizard written in Visual Basic code; the other does not. The tabling wizard allows users to calculate tables of descriptive weighted statistics. Please refer to the manual for instructions on how to use this wizard.

WARNING: Some browser versions will download these spreadsheet files in unzipped form; the resulting XLS file will require 26.4 MB of disk space for the file that only includes data and 15 MB for the file that includes the tabling wizard and data.

SAS program used to create summary variables
Extract of public data (3.86 MB ZIP)
Extract of public data with SCF tabling wizard (2.55 MB ZIP)
SCF tabling wizard manual (48 KB PDF)
Data last updated April 25, 2007

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Replicate Weight Files
For many purposes, one must consider the sampling error of SCF estimates. However, because detailed information on the sample design cannot be released, and because of the complexity of the SCF design, users cannot apply some of the standard procedures for variance estimation. A set of sample replicates has been created with bootstrap techniques and analysis weights have been computed independently for each replicate. Analysts may use these weights to make approximate estimates of sampling variance. Replicate weights corresponding to X42001 are available. See the codebook for more details. When uncompressed and restored to a V9.1.3 engine SAS data set, each file requires 48.7 MB of disk space.

WARNING: Some browser versions will download these files in unzipped form; the resulting PROC CPORT transport file will require 41 MB of disk space, the resulting PROC COPY transport file will require 46.8 MB of disk space, and the resulting Stata file will require 21.5 MB of disk space.

Replicate weights--X42001: CPORT version (26 MB ZIP)
Replicate weights--X42001: COPY/EXPORT version (26 MB ZIP)
Replicate weights--X42001: Stata version (13 MB ZIP)
Data last updated February 24, 2006


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