Personal Spending in the United States decreased 0.10 percent in May of 2025 over the previous month. This dataset provides the latest reported value for - United States Personal Spending - plus previous releases, historical high and low, short-term forecast and long-term prediction, economic calendar, survey consensus and news.

Consumer Spending in the United States increased to 16291.80 USD Billion in the first quarter of 2025 from 16273.20 USD Billion in the fourth quarter of 2024. This dataset provides the latest reported value for - United States Consumer Spending - plus previous releases, historical high and low, short-term forecast and long-term prediction, economic calendar, survey consensus and news.

View data of PCE, an index that measures monthly changes in the price of consumer goods and services as a means of analyzing inflation.

This statistic shows the U.S. self-reported upper-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. Upper-income consumers are Americans making at least 90,000 U.S. dollars a year. In July 2017, the average daily spending of upper-income Americans amounted to 178 U.S. dollars.

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

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: Goods (DGDSRX1) from Jan 2007 to May 2025 about PCE, consumption expenditures, consumption, personal, goods, real, and USA.

Real Consumer Spending in the United States decreased to 0.50 percent in the first quarter of 2025 from 4 percent in the fourth quarter of 2024. This dataset includes a chart with historical data for the United States Real Consumer Spending QoQ.

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.

Collected by the Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA), personal consumption expenditures (PCE) is the primary measure of consumer spending on goods and services in the United States economy. It accounts for about two-thirds of domestic final spending, and thus it is the primary engine that drives future economic growth. PCE shows how much of the income earned by households is being spent on current consumption as opposed to how much is being saved for future consumption. PCE also provides a comprehensive measure of types of goods and services that are purchased by households. Thus, for example, it shows the portion of spending that is accounted for by discretionary items, such as motor vehicles, or the adjustments that consumers make to changes in prices, such as a sharp run-up in gasoline prices. Further, Personal Consumption Expenditures by Function contain classifications that identify the purposes of objectives for which expenditures are made. In the U.S. National Income and Product Accounts (NIPAs), functional breakdowns of expenditures are provided for PCE by Function. NIPAs are a set of accounts that provides a logical and consistent framework for presenting statistics on U.S. economic activity. See Chapter 2 of the NIPA Handbook for further details regarding PCE by Function and NIPAs. In addition, the PCE by Function features several spending categories of arts-related goods and services, including the following items: Membership clubs, sports centers, parks, theaters, and museums Amusements parks, campgrounds, and related recreational services Admissions to specified spectator amusements, such as motion picture theaters, live entertainment, and spectator sports Museums and libraries Sports and recreational goods and related services Sports and recreational vehicles Magazines, newspapers, books, and stationery Photographic goods and services The PCE estimates are available monthly, so they can provide an early indication of the course of economic activity in the current quarter. For example, the PCE estimates for January are released at the end of February, and the estimates for February are released at the end of March; the advance estimates of gross domestic product (GDP) for the first quarter are released at the end of April. The PCE estimates are an integral part of the NIPAs. Data for PCE by Function are available for years 1929-2014. To view expenditures by function on the BEA Web site, users are encouraged to go to Summary NIPA Tables from the Consumer Spending page. The Summary Tables are located under the Estimates tab. On the Summary NIPA Tables page, users can view the PCE by Function Tables 2.5.3., 2.5.4., 2.5.5., and 2.5.6. under "Section 2 - Personal Income and Outlays." Users can interact with the data and choose the years they wish to view (e.g. 1999-2013). Spreadsheets can be downloaded from the Download NIPA Tables page.

This statistic shows the U.S. self-reported consumer spending on a monthly basis for the ongoing year. The survey is conducted through daily telephone interviews among approximately 30,000 adults per month in the U.S. The graph shows the 30-day average for each month to depict an annual trend. In July 2017, the average daily spending of Americans amounted to 109 U.S. dollars.

Graph and download economic data for Real personal consumption expenditures per capita (A794RX0Q048SBEA) from Q1 1947 to Q1 2025 about PCE, consumption expenditures, per capita, consumption, personal, real, GDP, and USA.

The Consumer Expenditure Survey (CE) consists of two parts: the Quarterly Interview Survey and the Diary Survey. Both surveys provide information on the purchasing habits of American consumers, including data on their expenditures, income, and consumer unit characteristics (e.g., age, education, occupation). The Quarterly Interview Survey (CEQ) includes information on monthly out-of-pocket expenses like housing, apparel, transportation, healthcare, insurance, and entertainment. The Diary Survey (CED) includes information on frequently purchased items like food, beverages, tobacco, personal care products, and nonprescription drugs. Approximately 20,000 independent interview surveys and 11,000 independent diary surveys are completed annually. The United States Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) publishes 12-month estimates of consumer expenditures annually, summarized by various income levels and demographic characteristics. Geographic data is available at the national level; for regions, divisions, selected states, and selected metropolitan statistical areas; and by population size of area.

blockgroupspending Opportunity US Consumers express their behavior in a number of ways, but critically in their spending decisions. The US Bureau of Labor Statistics is charged with publishing spending activity and provides its Consumer Expenditure Survey (CEX) annually with US totals, with selected states (40) and cities (23). Limited to aggregates, the survey only needs 10s of thousands of observations in the original collection. While this is sufficient for macroeconomic use, the volume gives a weak basis for estimating lower levels of geography. In addition, the CEX includes demographic measurements that are similar, but not directly related, to Census variables. So, the CEX does not integtate well with the American Commuity Survey or other Census publications. This blockgroupspending publication by Open Environments attempts to address this problem by using the BLS' Public Microdata (PUMD) sample to allocate CEX spending categories across 220,000 US Census block group geographies. For each block group, the effort applies two models to estimate: total consumer spending (regression) distribution of spending across spending categories (penetration) including Food, Transportation, Housing and Health costs. Ultimately, these project spending on block groups that can be joined to US Census publications for additional demographics. Understanding the results requires awareness of the BLS' CEX data structures. This is available in the markdown file named oe_bls_cex_EDA.md The publication is made together with the source python code and notebooks used for repeatability. The materials are maintained under version control at https://github.com/OpenEnvironments/blockgroupspending. All feedback and development requests are welcome. Model details -- The CEX publication includes many files reflecting detailed 'diary' surveys capturing spend on thousands of items every two weeks family 'interviews' collecting household spending over the previous 3 months The models are trained upon the latter, 'FMLI' files. The regression model uses extreme gradient boosting, or XGBoost methods that apply many decision trees to iteratively correct prediction error. The subcategory models also use tree based methods, trained upon a the family interview details. The spending variables are named, following the BLS' CEX convention: |Variable|Definition|2023|pct| |---|---|---|---| |TOTEXP|Average annual expenditures|77280|| |FOOD|Food|9985|0.129| |ALCBEV|Alcoholic beverages|637|0.008| |HOUS|Housing|25436|0.329| |APPAR|Apparel and services|2041|0.026| |TRANS|Transportation|13174|0.17| |HEALTH|Healthcare|6159|0.08| |ENTERT|Entertainment|3635|0.047| |PERSCA|Personal care products and services|950|0.012| |READ|Reading|117|0.002| |EDUCA|Education|1656|0.021| |TOBACC|Tobacco products and smoking supplies|370|0.005| |MISC|Miscellaneous|1184|0.015| |CASHCO|Cash contributions|2378|0.031| |RETPEN|Personal insurance and pensions|9556|0.124| During the exploratory phase of this effort, ensemble modelling was evaluated finding that different groupings of income did not appreciably change model estimates while racial and ethnic categories did. As a result, the models are case for major races (White, African American, Asian, Other) and Hispanic. The ACS is collected by API at the block group level. Block group geographies are the lowest level of Census ACS detail and consolidate into Census tracts which in turn consolidate into counties. The FMLI responses are recorded in nominal dollars throughout the year, while total expenditure and ACS data represent year end states. As a result, the models' prediction for total expenditure is cast up using monthly inflation, weighted by monthly expenditure. Additional Caveats It is import to note, analytically, that the results are a stretch for credibility. CEX Consumer Units (people sharing financial decisions) are not exactly Census households (people in a housing unit) CEX demographics are not exactly Census demographics, with the CEX imputing incomes differenly than the Census medians. The CEX applies population weightings to the microdata while the Census primarily aggregates from respondents. The CEX observations are from 1 household (race is a 0/1 indicator) while Census demographics are many households (races are proportions) Models are trained upon repeated measures from a Consumer unit but not revised for ANOVA. Several of the CEX subcategories are very small, as spending has changed over the years. Reading, Alcohol and Tobacco use are still top level subcategories, for example as those have declined significantly since the CEX was first designed. So, this model is limited to the major subcategories of food, housing, transportation, health and retirement spending.* The model apply machine learning to large datasets so significance is not a consideration. However, in practice, those very small subcategories should be avoided. Difference in spending across racial categories also have different...

A survey found that the average U.S. consumer spending per month on TV and video streaming declined by three U.S. dollars from 2023 to 2024, reaching a value of 82 U.S. dollars. The maximum amount, respondents were willing to spend was not much higher.

Graph and download economic data for Personal Consumption Expenditures: Services (PCES) from Jan 1959 to May 2025 about PCE, consumption expenditures, consumption, personal, services, 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 2008 and the first quarter of 2009. 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 2008 from the Interview Survey, integrated with data from the Diary Survey, will be published in the report Consumer Expenditures in 2008 (due out in 2010). 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, 2008."

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 non-institutional 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 2008 and 2009 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 2008 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]

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 record keeping 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.

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

Personal spending on gasoline and other energy goods includes spending on motor vehicle fuels, lubricants, and fluids; fuel oil; and other fuels. The Bureau of Economic Analysis estimates personal consumption expenditures, the primary measure of consumer spending on goods and services in the U.S. economy, for each quarter and releases new statistics every month. Quarterly PCE data are seasonally adjusted at annual rates to remove the effects of normal seasonal variation.