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

Consumer Expenditure 

Surveys Public Use Microdata 

(PUMD) Overview

Bryan Rigg

Division of Consumer Expenditure Surveys

CE Microdata Users’ Workshop

July 18-20, 2023
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What Are Microdata?

◼ “Microdata are information at the level of individual 

respondents.” – Wikipedia

◼ Consumer Expenditure Surveys (CE) Public-Use Microdata 

(PUMD) consists of Consumer Unit (CU) level characteristics, 

income, taxes, assets and liabilities, and expenditure data, as 

well as member level characteristics and income data.
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https://www.bls.gov/cex/pumd.htm
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Public Use Microdata

◼ Data files:

 SAS (*.sas7bdat), STATA (*.dta), comma-delimited (*.csv) 

◼ PUMD Getting Start Guide: 

 Help understanding the microdata structure, methodology, and how to use the data

◼ Documentation:

 Documents covering specific years (changes with each new PUMD release)

 Documents covering all years (Static or evolving documentation)

◼ Public Use Microdata Users’ Workshop
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https://www.bls.gov/cex/pumd_data.htm
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Data Files

◼ PUMD files contain respondent data collected in either the 

Interview or Diary survey. 

◼ These data can be used to create and correlate information in a 

variety of ways:

Descriptive Statistics

– How many CU’s in the sample purchased a new car in 2014? 

Inferential Statistics

– What is the average annual expenditure on eggs by all CU’s in the northeast 

region? 
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State Weight Files

◼ State Weights are a research product

Do not meet OMB guideline, but still provide valuable information

◼ Weights added to the main data page

◼ Information on how to use the weights in the Getting Started 

Guide
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www.bls.gov/cex/pumd-getting-started-guide.htm
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Getting Started Guide

◼ Description and conventions of the data files

◼ Details information and files structure of the data files

◼ Provides methodology and sample code for the PUMD to 

recreate published tables

◼ Describes State Weight files and links to documentation

◼ Provides considerations that should be taken when using the 

PUMD
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https://www.bls.gov/cex/pumd_doc.htm
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Documentation

◼ PUMD Getting Started Guide

◼ Dictionary for Interview and Diary Survey (XLSX)

Provides variables and codes from 1996 forward.

◼ Hierarchical groupings

◼ Establishes a relation between the published tables’ series and their 

contributing expenditure classification codes (UCC).
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Documentation Continued

◼ Source selection file (XLSX)

Identifies which survey data item (category) comes from when 

combining the two CE surveys for 1996 forward. 

◼ Description of Income Imputation 

Provides background

◼ User’s guide to income imputation (PDF)

Provides methodology
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Other Documentation

◼ Protection of respondent confidentiality 

Describes the recoding, topcoding, and suppression

◼ Errata

◼ Provides information on errors and their correction to the files of a 

particular year. 
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Other Resources

◼ About CE

Events

CE Glossary

Information for Survey Participants

CE Questions and Answers

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https://www.bls.gov/cex/csxfaqs.htm#PUMD
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2022 PUMD Release

◼ In April we released the first half of 2022

Interview for Q2 and Q3

Diary for Q1 and Q2

◼ September 2022
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Bryan Rigg

Section Chief, Public Use Microdata

Division of Consumer Expenditure Surveys

202-691-5495

Rigg.Bryan@bls.gov