DOI: 10.6077/2r8e-be42
title: Survey of Consumer Finances, 1956

description: &lt;p&gt;This data collection is one in a series of financial surveys of consumers conducted annually since 1946. In a nationally representative sample, the head of each spending unit (usually the husband, the main earner, or the owner of the home) was interviewed. The basic unit of reference in the study was the spending unit, but some family data are also available. The questions in the 1956 survey covered the respondent's attitudes toward national economic conditions and price activity, as well as the respondent's own financial situation. Other questions examined the spending unit head's occupation, and the nature and amount of the spending unit's income, debts, liquid assets, changes in liquid assets, savings, investment preferences, and actual and expected purchases of cars and other major durables. The survey also elicited respondent's attitudes about different methods of using income remaining after expenses were met, e.g., investing in stocks or putting money in savings. In addition, the survey explored in detail the subject of housing, e.g., previous and present home ownership, value of respondent's dwelling, and mortgage information. Other questions inquired into the part-time and full-time employment status of the spouse and other earners who were not the head. Questions about consumer debt covered its purpose and source. Personal data include number of people in the spending unit, age, sex, and education of the head, and the race and sex of the respondent. (Source: downloaded from ICPSR 7/13/10)&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Please Note&lt;/strong&gt;: This dataset is part of the historical CISER Data Archive Collection and is also available at ICPSR at &lt;a href="https://doi.org/10.3886/ICPSR03614.v1"&gt;https://doi.org/10.3886/ICPSR03614.v1&lt;/a&gt;. We highly recommend using the ICPSR version as they may make this dataset available in multiple data formats in the future.&lt;/p&gt;
description: Survey of Consumer Finances
description: collection_notes: The respondents interviewed were drawn from a national sample of dwelling units. The dwelling units falling in the sample were chosen by area probability sampling to represent the United States population. Since the basic unit of reference in the study was the spending unit, an interview was sought with the head of each spending unit, usually the husband, or the main earner or the owner of the home. A SPENDING UNIT (S.U.) is defined as a group of related people living in the same dwelling unit who pool their incomes for their major items of expense. Interviewers were instructed to enumerate the S.U.'s in a dwelling by listing the occupants over 18 years of age, and determining whether each person listed earned $15 or more per week. Those people who earned at least this amount and contributed one-half or more of their income to common expenses comprised a spending unit. By these criteria it was possible for there to be multiple spending units in a dwelling, and in some cases a spending unit consisted of only one person. For example, if a child over 18 living with his parents earned the necessary income, but contributed less than half of it for common expenses, he was considered a separate S.U. If the child was married, he and his spouse would constitute a S.U. A husband and wife living together always belong to the same S.U. After the spending units were delineated they were classified as "primary" or "secondary". The S.U. containing the head of the household was designated as the primary spending unit. A spending unit was designated as a RELATED secondary spending unit if its members were related to the head of the household, e.g. children over 18 or other adult relatives. A spending unit was classified as an UNRELATED secondary spending unit if its members were not related to the head of the household, e.g., roomers or servants.