An official website of the United States government

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.

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.

Bureau of Labor Statistics > Consumer Expenditure Survey > Data > Geographic Data

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 (2017-2023)	✔	✔
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
Northeast	Middle Atlantic	New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania
Midwest	East North Central	Indiana, Illinois, Michigan, Ohio, Wisconsin
Midwest	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
West	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. Division tables can be found here.

Selected States

State tables can be found here from 2017-2023.

The PUMD provides the variable State to identify the states. However, for confidentiality reasons, some state codes have been suppressed for some or all sampled consumer units in that state. Consumer unit weights are representative of a national sample, and not the state in which they reside. It is not accurate to use national sample weights to calculate state estimates. For the data releases from 2017 until 2023, BLS provided research weights that allow for statistically valid computation of consumer expenditures in selected states. These weights were constructed using restricted geographic data that are not available on the PUMD. Please see the PUMD documentation for further information on state identifiers and to access research weight files for selected states.

Note: As of May 2026, BLS will no longer produce state research products. Please see the CE FAQ Page for more information about state research products.

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: May 15, 2026