In September 2024, personal consumption expenditure in the United States increased by 0.5 percent when compared to the previous month. The data are in 2017 chained U.S. dollars, seasonally adjusted at monthly rates. According to the BEA, personal consumption expenditure is the value of the goods and services purchased by an individual living in the United States.

Graph and download economic data for Real Personal Consumption Expenditures (PCEC96) from Jan 2007 to Jan 2025 about headline figure, PCE, consumption expenditures, consumption, personal, real, and USA.

This statistic shows the U.S. self-reported lower- and middle-income consumer spending on a monthly basis for the ongoing year. The survey is conducted doing daily telephone interviews among approx. 30,000 adults per month in the U.S. The graph shows the 30-day average for each month to depict an annual trend. Lower- and middle-income consumers are Americans making less than 90,000 U.S. dollars a year. In July 2017, the average daily spending of lower- and middle-income Americans amounted to 80 U.S. dollars.

In September 2024, the core personal consumption expenditure (PCE) price index of the United States came to 123.22. The core PCE shows the prices paid by consumers for goods and services excluding food and energy, which experience high volatility. This enables an improved measure of inflation. A value above 100 indicates consumer spending is rising above the base year (2017) expenditures, while an index value below 100 shows a decline in spending.

Graph and download economic data for Real Personal Consumption Expenditures: Goods (DGDSRX1) from Jan 2007 to Jan 2025 about PCE, consumption expenditures, consumption, personal, goods, real, and USA.

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 survey consists of two separate components: (1) a quarterly Interview Survey in which each consumer unit in the sample is interviewed every three months over a 15-month period, and (2) a Diary 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 that 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 that 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 90 to 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, and characteristics and earnings of both the reference person and 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 nongifts. There may be more than one record for a UCC in a single month if that is what was xreported to the interviewer. The Income (ITAB) files supply monthly data at the UCC level for consumer unit characteristics and income. (Source: downloaded from ICPSR 7/13/10)

Household final consumption expenditure (formerly private consumption) is the market value of all goods and services, including durable products (such as cars, washing machines, and home computers), purchased by households. It excludes purchases of dwellings but includes imputed rent for owner-occupied dwellings. It also includes payments and fees to governments to obtain permits and licenses. Here, household consumption expenditure includes the expenditures of nonprofit institutions serving households, even when reported separately by the country. Data are in current U.S. dollars.

Statistics Canada, in partnership with the Bank of Canada, explores alternative and timely sources of expenditure data to estimate basket weights that reflect shifting consumption patterns during the COVID-19 pandemic. The data cover the majority of consumer goods and services.

Consumer Spending in Japan increased to 298443.60 JPY Billion in the third quarter of 2024 from 296483.50 JPY Billion in the second quarter of 2024. This dataset provides - Japan Consumer Spending - actual values, historical data, forecast, chart, statistics, economic calendar and news.

In November 2024, the unadjusted consumer price index (CPI) of all items for urban consumers in the United States amounted to about 315.49. The data represents U.S. city averages. The base period was 1982-84=100. The CPI is defined by the United States Bureau of Labor Statistics as “a measure of the average change over time in the prices paid by urban consumers for a market basket of consumer goods and services”. The annual consumer price index for urban consumers in the U.S. can be accessed here. Consumer Price Index The Consumer Price Index (CPI) began in 1919 under the Bureau of Labor Statistics and is published every month. The CPI for all urban consumers includes urban households in Metropolitan Statistical Areas and regions with over 2,500 inhabitants, as well as non-farm consumers living in rural regions. This index was established in 1978 and includes about 80 percent of the U.S. population. The monthly CPI of urban consumers in the United States increased from 292.3 in May 2022 to 304.13 in 2023. Inflation tends not to impact everyone equally for a variety of reasons, including geography - CPI often differs between regions, with a high of 287.49 in the Western region as of 2021. There are also disparities in inflation between income quartiles, in which inflation is generally felt more heavily by lower income households. The annual CPI in the United States has increased steadily over the past two decades, from 140.3 in 1992 to 292.56 in 2022. A forecast of the CPI expects this positive trend to continue, reaching 325.6 by 2027. As of March 2023, the CPI of the nation’s education had increased by 3.5 percent. Further, in the same month costs of recreation, rent, housing, medical care, and food and beverages, gasoline, and transportation increased. Comparatively, the CPI in Hong Kong reached 103.3 in 2022.

Graph and download economic data for Personal Consumption Expenditures: Durable Goods (PCEDG) from Jan 1959 to Jan 2025 about PCE, durable goods, consumption expenditures, consumption, personal, goods, and USA.

Consumer Spending in China increased to 493247.20 CNY Hundred Million in 2023 from 450468 CNY Hundred Million in 2022. This dataset provides - China Consumer Spending - actual values, historical data, forecast, chart, statistics, economic calendar and news.

Consumer Spending in Malaysia decreased to 253105 MYR Million in the fourth quarter of 2024 from 258519 MYR Million in the third quarter of 2024. This dataset provides - Malaysia Consumer Spending - actual values, historical data, forecast, chart, statistics, economic calendar and news.

In 2022, total private consumer spending per German household was around 2,850 euros. This sum was made up of various types of costs, of which the largest share was taken up by housing, energy, and home maintenance. Other large spending groups included food and transport. To spend or not to spend On average, the graph at hand is a representation of the life of German consumers, and the financial decisions which must be made in terms of spending. Individual consumer goods recorded varying levels of expenditure over the years. For example, German consumers spent more on clothing and shoes after the COVID-19 pandemic than before. Food spending has also increased annually in recent years. While shoppers may not necessarily be buying more food than usual, higher food prices since the beginning of the Russia-Ukraine war in 2022 are a contributing factor. Many are taking a second look at their spending plans and budgets. Money worries Living costs have taken the hit among the German population, some of whom have already faced previous financial challenges due to the coronavirus pandemic. Not only more expensive grocery runs, but also climbing energy prices had the potential to stretch German household spending to a critical point. However, monthly inflation figures have been decreasing again since the end of 2022 and have come back to a normal level of around two percent.

Personal Spending in Netherlands increased 1.20 percent in January of 2025 over the previous month. This dataset provides - Netherlands Consumer Spending MoM- actual values, historical data, forecast, chart, statistics, economic calendar and news.

In 2024, households in Japan with a household head aged between 50 and 59 years old spent a monthly average of about 326.4 thousand Japanese yen on consumption expenditures, the highest among households. By comparison, the monthly consumer spending of households with a head aged 29 years and younger amounted to around 204.1 thousand yen on average.

Graph and download economic data for Personal consumption expenditures per capita (A794RC0Q052SBEA) from Q1 1947 to Q4 2024 about PCE, consumption expenditures, per capita, consumption, personal, GDP, and USA.

Abstract

The Consumer Expenditure Survey (CE) program provides a continuous and comprehensive flow of data on the buying habits of American consumers. These data are used widely in economic research and analysis, and in support of revisions of the Consumer Price Index. To meet the needs of users, the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) produces population estimates for consumer units (CUs) of average expenditures in news releases, reports, issues, and articles in the Monthly Labor Review. Tabulated CE data are also available on the Internet and by facsimile transmission (See Section XVI. APPENDIX 5). The microdata are available on CD-ROMs. These microdata files present detailed expenditure and income data from the Interview component of the CE for 2007 and the first quarter of 2008. The Interview survey collects data on up to 95 percent of total household expenditures. In addition to the FMLY, MEMB, MTAB, and ITAB_IMPUTE files, the microdata include files created directly from the expenditure sections of the Interview survey (EXPN files). The EXPN files contain expenditure data and ancillary descriptive information, often not available on the FMLY or MTAB files, in a format similar to the Interview questionnaire. In addition to the extra information available on the EXPN files, users can identify distinct spending categories easily and reduce processing time due to the organization of the files by type of expenditure. Estimates of average expenditures in 2007 from the Interview Survey, integrated with data from the Diary Survey, will be published in the report Consumer Expenditures in 2007 (due out in 2009). A list of recent publications containing data from the CE appears at the end of this documentation. The microdata files are in the public domain and, with appropriate credit, may be reproduced without permission. A suggested citation is: "U.S. Department of Labor, Bureau of Labor Statistics, Consumer Expenditure Survey, Interview Survey, 2007."

Analysis unit

Consumer Units

Kind of data

Sample survey data [ssd]

Sampling procedure

Samples for the CE are national probability samples of households designed to be representative of the total U.S. civilian population. Eligible population includes all civilian noninstitutional persons. The first step in sampling is the selection of primary sampling units (PSUs), which consist of counties (or parts thereof) or groups of counties. The set of sample PSUs used for the 2007 and 2008 samples is composed of 91 areas. The design classifies the PSUs into four categories: • 21 "A" certainty PSUs are Metropolitan Statistical Areas (MSA's) with a population greater than 1.5 million. • 38 "X" PSUs, are medium-sized MSA's. • 16 "Y" PSUs are nonmetropolitan areas that are included in the CPI. • 16 "Z" PSUs are nonmetropolitan areas where only the urban population data will be included in the CPI.

The sampling frame (that is, the list from which housing units were chosen) for the 2007 survey is generated from the 2000 Census of Population 100-percent-detail file. The sampling frame is augmented by new construction permits and by techniques used to eliminate recognized deficiencies in census coverage. All Enumeration Districts (EDs) from the Census that fail to meet the criterion for good addresses for new construction, and all EDs in nonpermit-issuing areas are grouped into the area segment frame. Interviewers are then assigned to list these areas before a sample is drawn. To the extent possible, an unclustered sample of units is selected within each PSU. This lack of clustering is desirable because the sample size of the Diary Survey is small relative to other surveys, while the intraclass correlations for expenditure characteristics are relatively large. This suggests that any clustering of the sample units could result in an unacceptable increase in the within-PSU variance and, as a result, the total variance. The Interview Survey is a panel rotation survey. Each panel is interviewed for five consecutive quarters and then dropped from the survey. As one panel leaves the survey, a new panel is introduced. Approximately 20 percent of the addresses are new to the survey each month.

Mode of data collection

Computer Assisted Personal Interview [capi]

Consumer Spending in Argentina increased to 490317 ARS Million in the fourth quarter of 2024 from 482651 ARS Million in the third quarter of 2024. This dataset provides - Argentina Consumer Spending - actual values, historical data, forecast, chart, statistics, economic calendar and news.

Graph and download economic data for Personal consumption expenditures: Food (DFXARC1M027SBEA) from Jan 1959 to Jan 2025 about PCE, consumption expenditures, food, consumption, personal, and USA.