Survey of Financial Characteristics of Consumers, 1962 and Survey of Changes in Family Finances, 1963

<p>These surveys are major landmarks in the history of wealth surveys. They are the direct ancestors of the series of Surveys of Consumer Finances that began in 1983. The questionnaires were directly focused on collecting the details of family wealth. The sample design included a special sample of relatively wealthy respondents selected from tax files; this design allowed the survey both to improve the precision of the measurement of highly concentrated assets, and to deal with differentially higher unit nonresponse among wealthy households.</p>