Consumer Expenditure Survey Summary Tables

The Consumer Expenditure Survey (CE) program consists of two surveys: the quarterly Interview survey and the annual Diary survey. Combined, these two surveys provide information on the buying habits of American consumers, including data on their expenditures, income, and consumer unit (families and single consumers) characteristics. The survey data are collected for the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) by the U.S. Census Bureau. The CE collects all on all spending components including food, housing, apparel and services, transportation, entertainment, and out-of-pocket health care costs. The CE features several arts-related spending categories, including the following items: Spending on Admissions Plays, theater, opera, and concerts; Movies, parks, and museums; Spending on Reading Newspapers and magazines; Books; Digital book readers; Spending on Other Arts-Related Items Musical instruments; Photographic equipment; Audio-visual equipment; Toys, games, arts and crafts; The CE is important because it is the only Federal survey to provide information on the complete range of consumers' expenditures and incomes, as well as the characteristics of those consumers. It is used by economic policymakers examining the impact of policy changes on economic groups, by the Census Bureau as the source of thresholds for the Supplemental Poverty Measure, by businesses and academic researchers studying consumers' spending habits and trends, by other Federal agencies, and, perhaps most importantly, to regularly revise the Consumer Price Index market basket of goods and services and their relative importance. The most recent data tables are for 2018, and were made available on September 10, 2019. The unpublished integrated CE data tables produced by the BLS are available to download through NADAC (click on "Excel" in the Dataset(s) section). Also, see Featured CE Tables and Economic News Releases sections on the CE home page for current data tables and news release. The 2018 public-use microdata is the most recent and was released on September 10, 2019.