1 — U.S. BUREAU OF LABOR STATISTICS • bls.gov

Project 4&5: Using the Diary 

Survey and EXPN Files
2 — U.S. BUREAU OF LABOR STATISTICS TATISTICS • bls.gov bls.gov

Project 4

If you need to include complete estimates for 

education expenditures in your totals, you would

use the diary EXPD file to fill in the blanks at the 

summarized level (using created number of 

children variable from the MEMD files for this 

example)

In this project you will:

Learn how to navigate the Diary EXPD file

Learn how to connect the FMLD, MEMD EXPD files

Learn how to “integrate” data

2
3 — U.S. BUREAU OF LABOR STATISTICS TATISTICS • bls.gov bls.gov 3

Project 4 Steps

1. Concatenate 4 quarterly FMLD files to obtain a collection year of data

2. Repeat for the MEMD files

3. Generate the number of children per household by creating the 

Children count variable

4. Using the EXPD files, create summary Diary education expenditures at 

the household level using the education UCC that is sourced from the 

Diary survey (660000 - School supplies, etc. – unspecified)

5. Multiply estimates by 52 to obtain estimated annual totals from the 

weekly estimates

6. Calculate means based on number of children from Diary

7. Standard Error: Calculate standard error for each of the groups 

8. Add Diary means for each group to the Interview means 
4 — U.S. BUREAU OF LABOR STATISTICS • bls.gov 4

Project 4 Results

CUs with 0 children 

Education Expenditure 

Type

Education 

Expenditure

Mean

Education 

Expenditure 

Standard 

Error

Education 

Expenditure 

Percent 

Reporting

TUITION

$ 648.28 $ 54.65 3.65%

TEST

$ 5.76 $ 1.35 0.34%

BOOKS

$ 7.49 $ 1.11 0.77%

OTHER

$ 14.08 $ 2.75 0.97%

SUPPLIES $ 46.22 $ 3.52 5.23%

TOTAL $ 721.83 
5 — U.S. BUREAU OF LABOR STATISTICS • bls.gov 5

Project 4 Results

CUs with 1 child 

Education Expenditure 

Type

Education 

Expenditure

Mean

Education 

Expenditure 

Standard 

Error

Education 

Expenditure 

Percent 

Reporting

TUITION

$1,441.54 $ 172.06 8.01%

TEST

$ 26.11 $ 5.94 1.15%

BOOKS

$ 12.94 $ 3.21 1.46%

OTHER

$ 42.96 $ 9.28 2.84%

SUPPLIES $ 76.71 $ 12.22 6.60%

TOTAL $ 1,600.26 
6 — U.S. BUREAU OF LABOR STATISTICS • bls.gov 6

Project 4 Results

CUs with 2 children 

Education Expenditure 

Type

Education 

Expenditure

Mean

Education 

Expenditure 

Standard 

Error

Education 

Expenditure 

Percent 

Reporting

TUITION

$1,930.77 $ 206.77 11.24%

TEST

$ 69.02 $ 12.97 2.02%

BOOKS

$ 16.17 $ 3.05 2.14%

OTHER

$ 52.73 $ 7.99 4.51%

SUPPLIES $ 126.42 $ 20.49 8.91%

TOTAL $ 1,600.26 
7 — U.S. BUREAU OF LABOR STATISTICS • bls.gov 7

Project 4 Results

CUs with 3 children 

Education Expenditure 

Type

Education 

Expenditure

Mean

Education 

Expenditure 

Standard 

Error

Education 

Expenditure 

Percent 

Reporting

TUITION

$1,520.30 $ 239.22 10.80%

TEST

$ 39.37 $ 15.08 1.46%

BOOKS

$ 25.02 $ 6.19 2.72%

OTHER

$ 52.77 $ 11.26 4.48%

SUPPLIES $ 172.65 $ 48.40 12.02%

TOTAL $ 1,810.11 
8 — U.S. BUREAU OF LABOR STATISTICS • bls.gov 8

Project 4 Results

CUs with 4 or more children 

Education Expenditure 

Type

Education 

Expenditure

Mean

Education 

Expenditure 

Standard 

Error

Education 

Expenditure 

Percent 

Reporting

TUITION $1,546.53 $ 334.20 12.35%

TEST $ 46.21 $ 28.10 1.24%

BOOKS $ 35.23 $ 18.73 2.47%

OTHER $ 77.92 $ 24.14 5.56%

SUPPLIES $ 38.27 $ 10.99 6.45%

TOTAL $ 1,744.16 
9 — U.S. BUREAU OF LABOR STATISTICS TATISTICS • bls.gov bls.gov

Project 5

What if you want to know what kind of school or facility 

the expense was made toward and whether the 

expense was for someone inside or outside the CU? 

We can use the EDA file to get that information.

In this project you will:

◼ Learn more about the structure of one of the EXPN 

files

◼ See an example of non-expenditure information 

associated with an expenditure category

9
10 — U.S. BUREAU OF LABOR STATISTICS TATISTICS • bls.gov bls.gov 10

Using EXPN files

◼ In contrast to other Interview data files, EXPN 

files contain data from all 5 quarters of 

interviews in each file.

◼ Five variables are common to all EXPN files: 

QYEAR, NEWID, SEQNO, ALCNO and 

REC_ORIG. 
11 — U.S. BUREAU OF LABOR STATISTICS • bls.gov 11

Using EXPN files

◼ QYEAR represents the quarter and year of the 

interview from which the record was derived.

◼ The format for QYEAR is:

20211 2020, 1st quarter

20212 2020, 2nd quarter

20213 2020, 3rd quarter

20214 2020, 4th quarter

20221 2021, 1st quarter
12 — U.S. BUREAU OF LABOR STATISTICS TATISTICS • bls.gov bls.gov 12

Project 5 Steps

1. Read in EDA files and subset for education expenses reported for 

interviews conducted in 2021

2. Remove records with QYEAR = 2021

3. Calculate one-way frequency count based on the school or facility 

the expense was made toward (EDSCHL_A)

4. Calculate two-way frequency count based on the school or facility 

the expense was made toward and if the expense was made for 

someone inside or outside the CU (EDUCGFTC)

5. Calculate two-way frequency count based on the type of expense 

(EDUC_AY) and the school or facility the expense was made 

toward
13 — U.S. BUREAU OF LABOR STATISTICS • bls.gov 13

Project 5 Results

Count of expenditures by school type

School Frequency Percent Cumulative

Frequency

Cumulative

Percent

Not specified 2395

51.93%

2395

51.93%

College or university

1388

30.10% 3783 82.03%

Elementary through high 

school

606

13.14% 4389 95.16%

Child day care center

19

0.41% 4408 95.58%

Nursery school or 

preschool

23

0.50% 4431 96.08%

Vocational or technical 

school

66

1.43% 4497 97.51%

Other school 115 2.49% 4612 100.00%
14 — U.S. BUREAU OF LABOR STATISTICS • bls.gov 14

Project 5 Results

Count of expenditures by school type 

and recipient tenure

Person inside the CU Person outside the CU

School

Count Frequency Count Frequency

Not specified 2235 48.4605 160 3.4692

College or university 1122 24.3278 266 5.7676

Elementary through high 

school

573 12.4241 33 0.7155

Child day care center 14 0.3036 5 0.1084

Nursery school or preschool 23 0.4987

0

0.000

Vocational or technical 

school

64 1.3877 2 0.0434

Other school 105 2.2767 10 0.2168
15 — U.S. BUREAU OF LABOR STATISTICS • bls.gov 15

Project 5 Results

Count of expenditures by expense 

category and school type

Expenditure 

Type

Elementary 

through high 

school

Other school College or 

university

Child day 

care center

Nursery 

school or 

preschool

Vocational or 

technical 

school

Not specified

Books 110

22

344

4 4 13 .

Tuition 244

53

684

10 14 40 .

Combined 

expense

31

4

99

1 . 1 40

Recreational 

lessons

8

4

14

. . . 987

Nursery 

sch/day care

.

1

8

. . . 456

Test 

prep./tutoring

3

.

8

. 1 . 119

Housing 2

.

31

. . . 77

Food or 

board

4

.

37

. . . 69

Private 

school bus

.

.

1

. . . 14

Other 

expenses

204

31

164

4 4 12 633