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US Department of Labor

Consumer Expenditure Surveys

CE Program Links

130 Years of Consumer Expenditures

The first consumer expenditure survey was in 1888. To celebrate this year's anniversary milestone, this page provides links to various articles on CE history.

The first 130 years of the Consumer Expenditure Surveys (CE) 1888-2018

100 Years of U.S. Consumer Spending: Data for the Nation, New York City, and Boston summarizes the history of consumer expenditures in the United States

How family spending has changed in the U.S.

A century of family budgets in the United States

Consumer spending in World War II: the forgotten consumer expenditure surveys

The Sixth Annual Report of the Commissioner of Labor. Consumer spending results from 1888 starts around page 300 in the PDF. CAUTION: This link to the Sixth Annual Report, 1890, contains a huge scanned document (approximately 488MB zipped file).

CE History Page in the BLS Handbook of Methods

Last Modified Date: June 28, 2018

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