DOI: 10.3886/icpsr02193.v1
title: Survey of Consumer Finances, 1995
title: Version 1

description: The purpose of this data collection effort was to provide an accurate representation of the distribution of elements composing family balance sheets across families in the United States. To that end, the 1995 Survey of Consumer Finances was designed to gather household-level information closely comparable to that obtained in the SURVEY OF CONSUMER FINANCES, 1992 (ICPSR 6729). Detailed data were collected on the composition of household budgets, the terms of loans, and relationships with financial institutions. Information was also obtained on the employment history and pension rights of the survey respondent and the spouse or partner of the respondent. Detailed data were also gathered on characteristics of the survey respondent's housing and vehicle(s). In addition to recording data on the economic. assets and liabilities of families, the survey examined the attitudes of consumers toward credit use, and their reactions to consumer credit regulations and lines of credit. Demographic variables include age, sex, marital status, housing, and financial independence.
description: Datasets: 
 
 DS0: Study-Level Files 
 DS1: Main Data File 
 DS2: Replicate Weight File -- X42000 
 DS3: Replicate Weight File -- X42001
description: Survey of Consumer Finances Series
description: The data have been optimized and thus have a different record length from the original data provided by the principal investigators.
The SAS transport files were created using the SAS XPORT engine.
description: Households within the 48 contiguous United States.
description: The Federal Reserve Board does not release detailed information on the sample design, and because of the complexity of the Survey of Consumer Finances (SCF) design, users cannot apply some of the standard procedures for variance estimation. Because the SCF are unable to give users any sample information about cases in the dataset, users will be unable on their own to compute reasonable estimates of the sampling variances of their estimates. To facilitate such estimation, two files of replicate weights and multiplicity factors are provided. The weight X42001 (Part 3) is a partially design-based weight constructed at the Federal Reserve using original selection probabilities and frame information along with aggregate control totals estimated from the Current Population Survey. This weight is a relatively minor revision of the consistent weight series X42000 (Part 2) maintained for the SCFs beginning with 1989. (For a detailed discussion of these weights, see Arthur B. Kennickell and R. Louise Woodburn, "Consistent Weight Design for the 1989, 1992, and 1995 SCFs, and the Distribution of Wealth," REVIEW OF INCOME AND WEALTH 45,2 (June 1999), 193-215, or the longer version given on the SCF Web site: http://www.federalreserve.gov/pubs/oss/oss2/method.html). The nature of the revisions to the consistent weights is described in Arthur Kennickell, "Revisions to the SCF Weighting Methodology: Accounting for Race/Ethnicity and Homeownership" (January 1999) (see the SCF Web site). Users should be aware that the sum of each of the weights over all sample cases and imputation replicates is equal to five times the number of households in the sample universe.