Department of Labor Logo United States Department of Labor
Dot gov

The .gov means it's official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you're on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Consumer Expenditure Surveys

Geographic Data

The Consumer Expenditure Surveys (CE) program provides data for the following geographic areas: National, regions, divisions, selected States, selected Metropolitan Statistical Areas (MSAs), and by Population Size of Area. See the categories in Table 1 for information on what data are available for the geographic areas.

In order to protect respondent confidentiality, CE public data cannot provide additional geographic details, including Census tracts, Census blocks, or zip codes. Note that the CE sample only includes a subset of states.

Table 1: Available Geographic Data in the CE program
Geographic data PUMD Tables LABSTAT Database (Annual)

National

Regions

Divisions

Selected States

Selected MSAs

Population Size of Area

See Table 2 for information on how regions, divisions, and states are related.

Table 2: Categories for Regions, Divisions, and States
Region Division States

Northeast

New England Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, Vermont
Middle Atlantic New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania

Midwest

East North Central Indiana, Illinois, Michigan, Ohio, Wisconsin
West North Central Iowa, Kansas, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, North Dakota, South Dakota

South

South Atlantic Delaware, District of Columbia, Florida, Georgia, Maryland, North Carolina, South Carolina, Virginia, West Virginia
East South Central Alabama, Kentucky, Mississippi, Tennessee
West South Central Arkansas, Louisiana, Oklahoma, Texas

West

Mountain Arizona, Colorado, Idaho, New Mexico, Montana, Utah, Nevada, Wyoming
Pacific Alaska, California, Hawaii, Oregon, Washington

National

The CE national population represents the total non-institutionalized residents of the United States, both urban and rural. National tables can be found in the tables page.


Regions

Regions are large areas of the United States. There are four regions - Northeast, South, Midwest, and West. The public-use microdata (PUMD) provides the variable Region to identify the regions. Region tables can be found here for the annual calendar year tables and two-year tables.


Divisions

Divisions are geographic subsets within the four regions in the United States. Divisions contain a number of states, and each region contains two or three divisions. Beginning with the 2015 data, the PUMD provides the variable Division to identify the divisions. Information on the geographic divisions used by the CE program is on the U.S. Census geography page. Division tables can be found here.


Selected States

Currently there are estimates available for 5 states. State tables can be found here.


The PUMD provides the variable State to identify the states. As of December 2017, the CE program provides experimental weights that allow for statistically valid computation of selected states. Please see the PUMD documentation for further information on state identifiers for access to the current experimental weighting files for selected states. Please note that for confidentiality reasons some state codes have been suppressed for some or all sampled consumer units in that state.


Selected MSAs

Metropolitan Statistical Areas (MSAs) are areas with a high population density and close economic ties throughout, and are included in the CE survey's sample design as Primary Sampling Units (PSUs). Currently there are 23 MSAs for which estimates can be produced. The PUMD provides the variable PSU to identify the MSAs. MSA definitions are available on the MSA Definitions (2015-2016) page (PDF). MSA tables can be found here.


Population Size of Area

Estimates for all urban CUs by different population size categories are produced. There are six defined population size categories. The PUMD provides the variable popsize to identify the population size of a primary sampling unit (PSU). Population size of area tables can be found here for the annual calendar year tables and two-year tables.


 

Last Modified Date: September 18, 2023