DOI: 10.6077/6snw-r283
title: Consumer Expenditure Survey, 1984: Interview Survey

description: &lt;p&gt;The ongoing Consumer Expenditure Survey (CES) provides a continuous flow of information on the buying habits of American consumers and also furnishes data to support periodic revisions of the Consumer Price Index. The Consumer Expenditure Survey (CES) consists of two separate components: (1) a quarterly Interview panel survey in which each consumer unit in the sample is interviewed every three months over a 15-month period, and (2) a Diary or recordkeeping survey completed by the sample consumer units for two consecutive one-week periods. The Interview survey was designed to collect data on major items of expense, household characteristics, and income. The expenditures covered by the survey are those which respondents can recall fairly accurately for three months or longer. In general, these expenditures include relatively large purchases, such as those for property, automobiles, and major appliances, or expenditures which occur on a fairly regular basis, such as rent, utilities, or insurance premiums. Expenditures incurred while on trips are also covered by the survey. Excluded are nonprescription drugs, household supplies, and personal care items. Including global estimates on spending for food, it is estimated that about 95 percent of expenditures are covered in the Interview survey. The Consumer Unit Characteristics and Income (FMLY) files in this collection contain consumer unit characteristics, consumer unit income, characteristics and earnings of the reference person, and characteristics and earnings of the spouse. Summary expenditure data are also provided. The Member Characteristics and Income (MEMB) files present selected characteristics for each consumer unit member, including reference person and spouse. Each record in the FMLY and MEMB files consists of three months of data. Detailed Expenditures (MTAB) files provide monthly data at the Universal Classification Code (UCC) level. In these files expenditures for each consumer unit are classified according to UCC categories and are specified as gifts or non-gifts. The Income (ITAB) files supply monthly data at the UCC level for consumer unit characteristics and income. Parts 21 through 25 of the collection offer consumer durables information for the following topics: household appliance purchases, inventory of appliances, vehicle inventory and purchases, vehicle disposals, and travel. Parts 26 and 27 are files designed for use with the printed publication based on these data. (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 -- &lt;a href="https://doi.org/10.3886/ICPSR08671.v2"&gt;https://doi.org/10.3886/ICPSR08671.v2&lt;/a&gt;. We highly recommend using the ICPSR version as they made this dataset available in multiple data formats.&lt;/p&gt;
description: Consumer Expenditure Survey: Interview Survey
description: collection_notes: The sampling frame (i.e., the list from which housing units were chosen) for this survey was generated from the 1970 Census 100 percent detail file, augmented by new construction permits and coverage improvement techniques used to eliminate recognized deficiencies in that census. All Enumeration Districts (ED's) from the 1970 Census that failed to meet the criterion for good addresses and all ED's in nonpermit issuing areas are grouped into the area segment frame.