U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics

Consumer Expenditure Survey

Instructions for Downloading Consumer Expenditure Survey (CE) Microdata and Documentation

Using your mouse, right click on one of the zip file links (do not click on the zip files themselves).
In the box that appears on your screen, select "Save target as..."
In the dialogue box that appears on your screen, save the zip file to your computer.
Once the zip file has been downloaded to your computer, you will then have to extract the contents of the zip file to a location on your computer. Once extracted, the files are ready for use.

Because the zip files are large in size, ranging from 10MB to 100MB, a high-speed Internet connection should be utilized for downloading the files.

The files on the FTP server are structured so that those using an FTP client can download multiple files easily at one time. The data files are grouped together by format type (SAS, SPSS, STATA, ASCII Comma Delimited) with all years available in one directory. The documentation for all years are stored together in a separate directory.

For users wishing to download multiple zip files from the Bureau of Labor Statistics FTP site at one time, please visit the FTP directory.

Last Modified Date: July 17, 2012