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