DOI: 10.3886/icpsr09034
title: Survey of Consumer Expenditures, 1972-1973
title: Archival Version

description: This data collection, which offers detailed information on 
 the spending habits of American consumers, has two components: the 
 Interview Survey and the Diary Survey. The Interview Survey portion 
 tabulates data on a quarterly basis. For this survey consumer units 
 (roughly equivalent to households) were interviewed in each of five 
 consecutive quarters to obtain data on spending habits and patterns. 
 The Detailed Interview files, Parts 9 and 10, contain data on 
 characteristics of the consumer unit, including information on 
 geography and location of residence, characteristics of the household, 
 head, and spouse, housing characteristics, selected expenditure, income 
 and personal tax summary values, and individual family member 
 characteristics. Value data are also presented in these files and cover 
 items such as current consumption expenditures, personal insurance and 
 pensions, gifts and contributions, sources of income, personal taxes 
 paid, other money receipts, net change in assets and market value of 
 selected financial assets, net change in liabilities, and value of 
 items received without direct expense. No quantity or price data are 
 shown. Discrete expenditures are categorized with a high degree of 
 detail in these files. Part 11 supplies summary information about 
 characteristics of the consumer unit and also includes annual 
 expenditures and other disbursements. Parts 12 and 13, which can be 
 used with the detailed data, itemize purchases of durable consumer 
 goods such as major and minor household equipment, selected house 
 furnishings, motorized vehicles and selected trailers and boats. 
 Details are supplied on how and when the items were acquired, cost or 
 value of items, and model of item purchased. Parts 1 and 2 detail 
 individual purchases of clothing and household textiles by each 
 consumer unit. Information in these files specifies the family members 
 for whom each clothing item was purchased, whether the purchase was a 
 gift for someone outside the consumer unit, the quantity of each item 
 purchased, the month and year of each purchase, and the total cost of 
 each expenditure, including applicable sales tax. The Diary Survey 
 contains data on all purchases and other expenses of members of the 
 consumer unit during two consecutive one-week periods (excluding 
 expenses made while away from home overnight on trips or vacations). 
 Diaries, or daily expense records, were placed with consumer units in 
 order to obtain data not collected by the Interview Survey on small, 
 frequently purchased items which are normally difficult to recall over 
 longer periods of time. These include purchases of food, alcoholic 
 beverages, tobacco and smoking supplies, personal care products and 
 services, non-prescription drugs and medical supplies, housekeeping 
 supplies, gas, electricity and other fuel, gasoline, motor oil, 
 coolants and similar products, and miscellaneous items. Diary Survey 
 data in Parts 3 and 4 are organized by survey year and consumer unit 
 and supply information on consumer unit characteristics, family member 
 characteristics, and discrete expenditures. Parts 5 and 6 contain data 
 on daily purchases of food for human consumption, alcoholic beverages, 
 ice, and pet food. Information on quantity purchased, packaging, and 
 amount paid is provided in these files. Parts 7 and 8 record 
 characteristics of the consumer unit with data on items such as age, 
 sex, race, marital status, relationships of each family member, work 
 experience, earnings, family size, number of vehicles owned, and place 
of residence.
description: National probability sample.
description: Datasets: 
DS0: Study-Level Files
DS1: Interview Survey Quantity of Clothing and Household Textiles: First Survey Year (1972)
DS2: Interview Survey Quantity of Clothing and Household Textiles: Second Survey Year (1973)
DS3: Diary Survey Public Use Tape Year 1
DS4: Diary Survey Public Use Tape Year 2
DS5: Diary Survey [Food Quantity] Public Use Tape Year 1
DS6: Diary Survey [Food Quantity] Public Use Tape Year 2
DS7: Diary Survey Characteristics File Year 1
DS8: Diary Survey Characteristics File Year 2
DS9: Interview Survey Detailed Public Use Tape, 1972
DS10: Interview Survey Detailed Public Use Tape, 1973
DS11: Interview Survey Public Use Tape, 1972-1973: Summary
DS12: Interview Survey Inventory of Consumer Durables, 1972
DS13: Interview Survey Inventory of Consumer Durables, 1973
description: Total civilian noninstitutionalized population of the 
United States.
description: Machine-readable codebooks are available for Parts 1, 
 2, 5, 6, 10, and 11. For Parts 1 and 2 there are at least 18 records of 
 data for each consumer unit with 17 records of consumer unit and family 
 member characteristics data and one or more records of purchase data. 
 Data for the first survey year include 167,871 characteristics records 
 and 527,575 purchase records. Data for the second survey year include 
 171,906 characteristics records and 534,115 purchase records. For Parts 
 3 and 4 there are 9 records of characteristics information and a 
 variable number of expenditure records per consumer unit. Parts 5 and 6 
 contain 8 records of characteristics data and one or more records of 
 purchase data for each consumer unit. There are 88,520 characteristics 
 records and 637,824 purchase records for the first survey year and 
 96,968 characteristics records and 666,410 purchase records for the 
 second year. Parts 7 and 8 include, for each consumer unit, 8 records 
 of characteristics data. For Parts 9 and 10 there are 18 records of 
 characteristics data and at least one record of value data per consumer 
 unit. In these files characteristics records total 177,642 for the 
 first survey year and 181,908 for the second. Value records total 
 903,302 and 940,322, respectively. Part 11 contains one record per 
 consumer unit in the survey year. For Parts 12 and 13 there is a 
 variable number of records per consumer unit and logical record lengths 
 may vary, with the maximum being 138 characters. For the two survey 
 years combined there are 206,561 records on major household equipment 
 items, 332,635 records on minor household items, 19,763 records on 
 selected house furnishings items, and 44,520 records on consumer unit 
vehicles.