Is the Consumer Expenditure Survey Representative by Income?

John Sabelhaus, David Johnson, Stephen Ash, Thesia Garner, John Greenlees, Steve Henderson, and David Swanson

Figure 1: Consumer Expenditure Survey (CE) Response Rates by Zip-Code Level Adjusted Gross Income (AGI) Percentile

Pctl	Blue Diamonds: BASEWT	Red Squares: STAGE1WT	Green Triangles: FINALWT21
1	0.8425	1.0685	1.3197
2	0.8057	1.0614	1.2850
3	0.8323	1.0793	1.2985
4	0.8079	1.0473	1.2622
5	0.6998	0.9200	1.1080
6	0.7900	1.0299	1.2592
7	0.8014	1.0369	1.2437
8	0.8163	1.0593	1.2790
9	0.7553	0.9828	1.1866
10	0.7247	0.9624	1.1314
11	0.7647	0.9996	1.2036
12	0.8251	1.0880	1.3094
13	0.7625	0.9982	1.2031
14	0.7414	0.9860	1.1426
15	0.7173	0.9412	1.1146
16	0.7288	0.9584	1.1165
17	0.7494	0.9981	1.1919
18	0.7495	1.0085	1.1540
19	0.7465	1.0060	1.1556
20	0.7462	1.0102	1.1974
21	0.7241	0.9680	1.1263
22	0.7736	1.0171	1.1630
23	0.7228	0.9635	1.0912
24	0.7433	1.0071	1.1692
25	0.7226	0.9773	1.1390
26	0.7612	1.0275	1.1919
27	0.7581	1.0080	1.1699
28	0.7364	0.9986	1.1321
29	0.7905	1.0502	1.2097
30	0.7293	0.9880	1.1369
31	0.7129	0.9542	1.0978
32	0.7142	0.9417	1.0778
33	0.7441	1.0047	1.1233
34	0.8067	1.0782	1.1907
35	0.7670	1.0304	1.1757
36	0.7461	0.9892	1.1329
37	0.7402	1.0141	1.1556
38	0.7726	1.0544	1.1908
39	0.7200	0.9782	1.1213
40	0.7473	1.0009	1.1416
41	0.7772	1.0413	1.1909
42	0.7379	0.9909	1.1446
43	0.7670	0.9931	1.1532
44	0.7705	1.0215	1.1694
45	0.7853	1.0485	1.2031
46	0.7501	1.0239	1.1558
47	0.7345	0.9827	1.1299
48	0.7555	1.0047	1.1529
49	0.7308	0.9815	1.1219
50	0.7097	0.9638	1.1216
51	0.7447	0.9948	1.1402
52	0.7173	0.9704	1.0958
53	0.7449	0.9984	1.1428
54	0.7454	1.0016	1.1375
55	0.7081	0.9578	1.0957
56	0.7396	0.9968	1.1266
57	0.7422	0.9763	1.1216
58	0.7401	1.0072	1.1430
59	0.7417	0.9985	1.1266
60	0.7231	0.9742	1.1168
61	0.7587	1.0256	1.1679
62	0.7626	1.0366	1.1769
63	0.7230	0.9840	1.0963
64	0.7608	1.0448	1.1914
65	0.7802	1.0596	1.2308
66	0.7327	0.9993	1.1414
67	0.7422	1.0101	1.1499
68	0.7499	1.0269	1.1553
69	0.7584	1.0185	1.1567
70	0.7746	1.0705	1.2098
71	0.7624	1.0487	1.2011
72	0.7489	1.0088	1.1533
73	0.7615	1.0309	1.1934
74	0.7856	1.0647	1.2157
75	0.7062	0.9633	1.1006
76	0.7052	0.9686	1.0959
77	0.7471	1.0143	1.1751
78	0.6937	0.9409	1.0847
79	0.7379	1.0030	1.1701
80	0.7462	1.0130	1.1562
81	0.7265	1.0051	1.1271
82	0.7153	0.9752	1.1058
83	0.7269	0.9960	1.1248
84	0.7596	1.0439	1.1738
85	0.7000	0.9550	1.0901
86	0.7324	0.9921	1.1380
87	0.7314	0.9799	1.1208
88	0.7413	1.0164	1.1385
89	0.7315	1.0049	1.1488
90	0.7027	0.9579	1.0954
91	0.6892	0.9499	1.0786
92	0.6874	0.9458	1.0810
93	0.7459	1.0359	1.1703
94	0.7622	1.0433	1.1862
95	0.6863	0.9464	1.0801
96	0.6604	0.9095	1.0344
97	0.6480	0.8948	1.0091
98	0.6585	0.9105	1.0173
99	0.6912	0.9609	1.0929
100	0.6453	0.8971	0.9982

Return to Figure 1

Figure 2: Ratio of Mean Consumer Expenditure Survey (CE) Income to Adjusted Gross Income (AGI) by Zip-Code Level AGI Percentile

Pctl	Ratio
1	1.38705011293191
2	1.28842709207523
3	1.22021998054271
4	1.26905270124223
5	1.20360321574828
6	1.1620412397736
7	1.30797277484747
8	1.32029477258413
9	1.14270064155225
10	1.39632769012434
11	1.30323403277184
12	1.46233576774337
13	1.19114377973649
14	1.13716495507879
15	1.19763867195599
16	1.18969264592404
17	1.24285765973123
18	1.25428804026077
19	1.26053873464179
20	1.12989571357611
21	1.31473969304951
22	1.36253312691779
23	1.33228055311356
24	1.33617017927092
25	1.14026085637157
26	1.32859860316899
27	1.05434960937901
28	1.36617049678221
29	1.38258924088402
30	1.25228596318255
31	1.28354294452708
32	1.23302423832899
33	1.0462720215908
34	1.31062515242661
35	1.21398673274465
36	1.30684099142559
37	1.07126306604135
38	1.32266169161863
39	1.25117844015199
40	1.35571698528751
41	1.23274136011642
42	1.25235616721469
43	1.02568766253237
44	1.22098937818607
45	1.25988690781694
46	1.2495342399698
47	1.22653944750527
48	1.23289519026882
49	1.24826006163094
50	1.21837266531678
51	1.23069502463091
52	1.05798317096928
53	1.22134319176122
54	1.25400022591656
55	1.13290156890795
56	1.08805093524757
57	1.17368160650661
58	1.03914670923274
59	1.03245627599946
60	1.14135912316136
61	1.20386059113382
62	1.26655128863113
63	1.15273353373529
64	1.28904081090547
65	1.208437477074
66	1.10203458808322
67	1.30125778824441
68	1.03608803359036
69	1.2203396831914
70	1.14347811891101
71	1.18877957234516
72	1.30336698765094
73	1.14180873626657
74	1.17766390687077
75	1.18101780855679
76	1.21259304171197
77	1.20080176682843
78	1.15174914328223
79	1.21205714399226
80	1.33201912264843
81	1.0919333758995
82	1.22258795189993
83	1.07959185598066
84	1.33494727877692
85	1.3068719894818
86	1.20512212618201
87	1.22353484079813
88	1.20722269405445
89	1.02945545378385
90	1.09142637759294
91	1.2068057221249
92	1.14825052954227
93	1.17634684359552
94	1.00211346103889
95	0.982947920984791
96	1.06539681124946
97	0.968812947214689
98	1.14063760082356
99	0.736397209817402
100	0.734293273309824

Return to Figure 2

Figure 3: Ratio of Mean CPS Adjusted Gross Income (AGI) to SOI AGI by Zip-Code Level SOI AGI Percentile

Pctl	Ratio
1	1.47193938462848
2	1.15615048378329
3	1.28521013526508
4	1.35563728405554
5	1.29795556864961
6	1.28051791691201
7	1.25259978042747
8	1.34695838463783
9	1.36262894310879
10	1.50603482646314
11	1.34720403976725
12	1.23300145641444
13	1.40927520598703
14	1.24053708585431
15	1.4447689789975
16	1.32973363975217
17	1.48492019091394
18	1.23194923539503
19	1.22141647665301
20	1.32922370859145
21	1.1778425950609
22	1.35889562837348
23	1.17210424399768
24	1.27905574551835
25	1.2190462787488
26	1.41583192161292
27	1.38282232911441
28	1.19467841267975
29	1.30695229685826
30	1.32365025261756
31	1.36740598435915
32	1.17466027436794
33	1.25821336799842
34	1.23905677492579
35	1.28145964079664
36	1.24228080350589
37	1.33565369346582
38	1.36999016667451
39	1.39615969737121
40	1.17168133399185
41	1.2370682521499
42	1.3367588631421
43	1.36315816961743
44	1.24543931740849
45	1.11767121742682
46	1.22516655842302
47	1.17284120446558
48	1.2670433016092
49	1.32088335446785
50	1.11379856956557
51	1.34303458613955
52	1.22247725226852
53	1.22282717930363
54	1.30087712532254
55	1.17936067183847
56	1.26116477666163
57	1.25528970359889
58	1.34391640827871
59	1.20191024820313
60	1.22998328288165
61	1.24333289261177
62	1.34793358371991
63	1.31471433040519
64	1.30451199204989
65	1.24783034302442
66	1.40124014247136
67	1.23709797676355
68	1.10852397820548
69	1.11361647848567
70	1.21132106301199
71	1.24196602918233
72	1.12986969237601
73	1.22229149258079
74	1.18401846388528
75	1.40892730187087
76	1.19942340363737
77	1.07225448653309
78	1.13492606692744
79	1.15794337455378
80	1.30801728446681
81	1.26318199992086
82	1.26295023400358
83	1.1893031280835
84	1.22847634362854
85	1.222692775458
86	1.2105789057937
87	1.17877144784699
88	1.05039489206434
89	1.10295247104606
90	1.11319016188592
91	1.08500774190443
92	1.02025074020751
93	0.924372580357457
94	1.08854538805082
95	1.00993949002753
96	0.994756286075222
97	0.834942746053205
98	0.889938166161594
99	0.756081932822229
100	0.505792626902352

Return to Figure 3

Figure 4: Expenditure to After-Tax Income Ratios in Published CE data

1972-73 Spending/Income	1972-73 Income	2003 Spending/Income	2003 Income	2010 Spending/Income	2010 Income
1.968	8180	2.036	9322	2.209	8283
1.282	16735	1.599	14872	1.554	12808
1.149	21260	1.359	20687	1.408	17715
1.094	25420	1.252	27490	1.153	25282
1.068	29640	1.047	39546	1.024	34712
1.008	33575	0.928	50771	0.913	44496
0.984	39555	0.882	66872	0.823	58291
0.944	47455	0.800	84601	0.783	72800
0.891	57425	0.784	99756	0.726	86772
0.853	72705	0.742	120726	0.716	104459
0.811	91850	0.711	144154	0.703	127524
0.787	111055	0.570	246719	0.538	228585
0.775	130405
0.727	149325
0.624	180190
0.461	316215

Return to Figure 4

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