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130 Years of the

Consumer Expenditure Surveys (CE)

1888 - 2018

Steve Henderson & 

Adam Safir, BLS

June 7, 2018
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CE History

 BLS established in Department of Interior in 1884

 First expenditure survey at BLS initiated in 1888 (n=3,000)

 Family living condition studies rank among the oldest data-collecting functions of BLS

 To date, there have been 10 “iterations” of the CE
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The Evolution of the CE, 1888 through 1936

1. 1888–1891 – First nationwide expenditure survey. The purpose was to study workers’ 

spending patterns as elements of production costs.

2. 1901 – Provided weights for an index of food prices by workers through WWI.

3. 1917-1919 – Provided weights for computing a cost-of-living index, now known as 

the Consumer Price Index (CPI). 

4. 1934-1936 – Urban wage earners and clerical workers, primary purpose to revise CPI 

weights, but also extended analysis of socioeconomic conditions during Depression.
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The Evolution of the CE, some details from the 

first 30 years: CE 1, the Beginning

 Income: $586.43. 

 Food per family: $238.66, including $3.00 for vinegar, pickles, and condiments. (45% 

of total spending)

 Total expenditures per family: $527.94

 Spending on food or fuel lower than consumption for farms and mining areas

 Spending on intoxicating liquors in the U.S: “the lowest is for the Scotch families, being 

$8 per annum.”
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The Evolution of the CE 1: 1888

 Going back in time, everybody who works on the CE is new, as even the most senior 

staff at the Bureau only started in 1884.

 Grover Cleveland is president.

 The Civil War had been over less than 25 years.

 There was no spending reported at restaurants, or

even for cakes. Cupcake tins were a recent

invention.

 There seems to be a small sample size problem, with published conclusions being 

drawn from just a few households.
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The Evolution of the CE 2: 1901

 The CE turned 13 years old.

 Teddy Roosevelt is president. 

 The CE is surveying hard working families, and is still based on annual recall. Family 

members are earning wages, including their children. 

 The report notes some families kept 

“correct book accounts.”
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The Evolution of the CE 2: 1901

 “The data here presented were gathered by experienced special agents...” (Date are 

plural even then. And instead of ‘data collectors’ we had ‘special agents.’ That’s a 

great job title.)

 Average expenditures per family: $699.24, including $312.92 on food, which is still 

45% of the total.

 Income of $749.50.

 Income contributed by wives: 

8.54%, by children 22.19%, 

(In the US: Income from children 35.29% in the Welsh nativity.)
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The Evolution of the CE 2: 1901

 Concerns about recall, sample bias, and

variance. If the sample was small, the averages “should of course be accepted with 

due caution...”

 The value of producing public use microdata was dismissed:

“It is believed that all the more important features are brought out in the tables 

presented in this report.”

 There was also a special detailed table for families

who “were reported as being generally somewhat more intelligent and better 

educated than the average family.”
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The Evolution of the CE 3: 1917 – 1919

 The CE was turning 30 years old. Woodrow Wilson is president, and WW I is ending.

 Income now includes earnings plus income from lodgers, from garden, poultry, gifts, 

rents, and investments.

 There are separate tables for “All Family” averages, 

plus averages for only those who’d made a purchase 

for that item that year.

For example, the national all family average on shoe shines 

was 9 cents, but was $3.61 for those who’d bought shoe shines.
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The Evolution of the CE 3: 1917 – 1919

 Average yearly expenses per family: $1,434.37, including $548.51 for food (now 38% 

of total spending.) Income was $1,513.29.

 Expenditures were published for talking machines; excursions and vacations; street 

car fares; umbrellas and parasols; hats: felt, straw, and caps; spats and leggings; 

collars; arctics; and belts (3 cents) and suspenders (8 cents).

 Included $15 on cakes and cookies!
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The Evolution of the CE, 1935 through 1961

5. 1935-1936 – Urban and rural sample used for the “Study of Consumer Purchases.”

6. 1941-1944 – Urban, farm, and non-farm sample provided estimates of expenditures 

and savings by income for the nation. Covered all of 1941 and the first 3 months of 

1942, highlighting differences before and after the Pearl Harbor attack. Repeated in 

1944 for urban households to see how spending changed.

7. 1950 – Urban sample only, an abbreviated version of the 1935–1936 study. 

8. 1960-1961 – Urban and rural sample, provided the basis for revising the CPI weights, 

while supplying material for broader economic, social, and market analyses. 
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The Evolution of the CE, 1941 through 1961

9. 1972-1973 – Data used to revise CPI weights, but major changes in collection:

 Unlike earlier surveys, the U.S. Census Bureau, under contract to BLS, conducted 

all sample selection and field work. 

 Another change was the introduction of a Diary Survey in addition to the existing 

Interview Survey to collect the survey information. 

 A third major change was the switch from an annual recall to a quarterly recall (in 

the Interview Survey) and daily recordkeeping of expenditures (in the new Diary 

Survey). 

10. 1980-present – Initiation of the current continuing survey in 1980. Since then, the 

data have been available annually.
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Selected CE Highlights, 1984-2003

 1984, The first year of integrated data from the Diary Survey and Interview Survey.

 1993, CE microdata are made available on CD-ROM for sale to the public.

 1995, CE data tables are made available to the public on the BLS website.

 1996, The Initial Edit Subsystem (IES) added to production processing.

 1999, CE sample increased by 50 percent, allowing more frequent CPI weight updates.

 1999, The CE Division receives funding to establish a separate research branch. 

 2000, The first year for which standard error tables are made available.

 2001, Improvements to the survey income estimates by introducing income brackets.

 2002, Downsized from mainframe to Unix and the client server environment.

 2003, Data collection in the Interview Survey shifts from PAPI to CAPI.
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Selected CE Highlights, 2004-today

 2004, Income estimates improved by implementing model-based income imputation.

 2005, A more user-friendly redesigned diary collection instrument is introduced. 

 2006, The first of the annual CE public-use microdata workshops is held at BLS.

 2007, Migrated from Sybase to Oracle. 

 2009, Gemini Project to redesign the CE surveys initiated.

 2012, The first of the annual CE survey methods symposiums is held at BLS.

 2013, CE introduces new estimates of tax liabilities using the TAXSIM calculator.

 2013, CE midyear data tables are made available to the public on the BLS website.

 2015, Initial bounding interview dropped from the Interview Survey.

 2017, First release of experimental state-level weights for use with CE data (NJ).
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Want to learn more 

about the history of the CE?

 See historical summaries and articles about the CE

 The historic timeline is from the CE chapter from the BLS Handbook of Methods

 Original source documents referenced are:

 1888, the 6th Annual Report of the Commissioner of Labor, 1890.

 1901, the 18th Annual Report of the Commissioner of Labor, 1903.

 1918-1919, Cost of Living in the United States, Bulletin of the US Bureau of Labor 

Statistics, #357, May 1924.

 Or write to us at CEXInfo@BLS.gov