MyMoney Resources - Researcher

Find research we’ve published and information we’ve collected about the consumer financial marketplace. Use these resources to improve your understanding of the marketplace.

Conducted biennially since 2009 partly in response to a statutory mandate, the survey is administered in partnership with the U.S. Census Bureau and collects information on bank account ownership, use of prepaid cards and nonbank financial transaction services, and use of bank and nonbank credit by U.S. households.

The Consumer Expenditure Survey collects information from households and families on their buying habits (expenditures), income, and household characteristics. The survey data are collected on an ongoing basis by the U.S. Census Bureau for the Bureau of Labor Statistics. This nationwide household survey is designed to represent the total U.S. civilian noninstitutional population. The survey consists of two components, a quarterly Interview Survey and a weekly Diary Survey. In the Interview Survey, each consumer unit is interviewed every 3 months over five calendar quarters. In the initial interview, information is collected on demographic and family characteristics and on the consumer unit’s inventory of major durable goods. Expenditure information is collected in the second through the fifth interviews using uniform questionnaires. Income and employment information is collected in the second and fifth interviews. In the fifth interview, a supplemental section is administered in order to account for changes in assets and liabilities over a one-year period. The Interview Survey collects detailed data on an estimated 60 to 70 percent of total family expenditures. In addition, global estimates—that is, estimated average expenditures for a 3-month period—are obtained for food and other selected items. These global estimates account for an additional 20 to 25 percent of total expenditures. In the Diary Survey, respondents are asked to keep track of all their purchases made each day for two consecutive 1-week periods. Participants receive each weekly diary during a separate visit by a Census Bureau interviewer. Diary and Interview Survey microdata for individual consumer units since 1990.

The Current Population Survey (CPS) is a monthly survey of households conducted by the U.S. Census Bureau for the Bureau of Labor Statistics. It supports a set of widely reported monthly economic indicator statistics such as the national unemployment rate. As a household survey, the CPS provides a comprehensive body of data on the composition of the labor force (by age, sex, race, Hispanic origin, marital status, family relationship and veteran status), employment, unemployment, hours of work, earnings, discouraged workers and other persons not in the labor force, and other attributes of the labor force including employed multiple job holders and the impact of education level on employment and earnings. Data are also available on work experience, occupational mobility, job tenure, educational attainment, and school enrollment of workers. Supplemental questions on a variety of labor force topics (e.g., employment of school-aged workers; high school graduates and dropouts; displaced workers) and occasional non-labor topics are also included in the survey. The survey has been conducted monthly since 1940, and underwent a major redesign in 1994. It is currently conducted on a nationally representative sample of about 60,000 households.

The American Housing Survey (AHS) is the largest, regular national housing sample survey in the United States. The U.S. Census Bureau conducts the AHS to obtain up-to-date housing statistics for the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD). Although the focus of the AHS is on the housing unit (physical space), the survey captures a rich array of information about the individuals and households who occupy those units, including the financial implications of their housing choices. In the AHS, national data are collected every other year, from a fixed sample of about 50,000 homes selected to represent a cross-section of all housing in the nation, plus new construction each year. In addition to interviewing the households who occupy the housing units, Census Bureau workers obtain information on unoccupied units from landlords, rental agents, or neighbors. The AHS provides detailed data on the size, composition, and condition of the housing inventory; data on financial characteristics of occupants such as monthly housing costs (the sum of all housing costs including utilities, the ratio of housing costs to income, and payment plans of primary and secondary mortgages); and neighborhood quality, such as presence or lack of crime, litter, or housing deterioration. In recent years additional questions provide information about characteristics such as gated communities and home equity loans. The survey asks homeowners about repairs and mortgages, renters about rent control and rent subsidies, recent movers about the homes they left and why they moved, and workers about their commutes. For all occupants the AHS provides age, sex, household relationships, education, wages, and the year the occupants moved into their home. The survey started in 1973, and has had the same sample since 1985, providing a view of how homes and households change over the years. In some metropolitan areas additional samples have been added every 4-6 years to measure local conditions. The most recent national survey data available are from the 2009 survey.

SIPP provides comprehensive information about income and labor force participation for individuals and households in the United States, and the extent and principal determinants of their participation in government transfer payment and supplemental income programs. SIPP offers detailed information on cash and noncash income on a subannual basis. The survey also collects data on taxes, assets, liabilities, and participation in government transfer programs. SIPP data allow the government to evaluate the effectiveness of federal, state, and local programs, estimate future program costs and coverage, and improve statistics on the distribution of income and measures of economic well-being in the country. The survey design is a continuous series of national panels, with sample size ranging from approximately 14,000 to 45,000 interviewed households. The duration of each panel ranges from 2 ½ years to 4 years. Each SIPP panel is a multistage-stratified sample of the U.S. civilian non-institutionalized population. The content is built around a "core" of labor force, program participation, and income questions designed to measure the economic situation of people in the United States. In addition, the survey periodically includes questions on a variety of topics not covered in the core section. These questions are labeled "topical modules" and are assigned to particular interviewing waves of the survey. Topics covered by the modules include personal history, child care, wealth, program eligibility, child support, utilization and cost of health care, disability, school enrollment, taxes, and annual income. Data are currently available for the series of panels conducted between 1984 and 2004. The 2008 panel is in the field.

The SCF is conducted every three years to provide detailed information on the finances of U.S. families (households). The study is sponsored by the Federal Reserve Board in cooperation with the Department of the Treasury and is widely used by the Federal Reserve, other branches of the U.S. government and researchers worldwide for insights and analysis regarding U.S. household finances. Respondents are selected through a geographically based random sample and a special oversample of relatively wealthy families. This process is designed to produce reliable information both on attributes that are broadly distributed in the population (such as homeownership) and on those that are highly concentrated in a relatively small part of the population (such as closely held businesses). The survey collects information on total family income for the calendar year preceding the survey, as well as a wide range of financial characteristics at the time of the interview, including details on assets and debts, use of various financial services, pension information, labor force participation and demographic characteristics. The most recent survey for which data are available was conducted in 2007. Because the survey questionnaire has changed only slightly since 1989, data available from the 1989, 1992, 1995, 1998, 2001, and 2004 surveys are comparable to the 2007 survey. Approximately 4,700 families were interviewed for the 2007 survey.

The Community Financial Access Pilot (CFAP) began in 2008 and was implemented through December 2009 by the U.S. Department of the Treasury (the Treasury) to increase access to financial services and financial education among low- and moderate-income families and individuals, especially individuals who have no bank or credit union account. Through the Treasury’s Office of Financial Education (now the Office of Financial Education and Financial Access), eight locations, representing a diverse set of urban, suburban, metropolitan, and rural areas of the U.S., were selected for a pilot project designed to enhance local capacity to build collaboratives that would increase the availability and use of mainstream financial services and financial education for the low- and moderate-income (LMI) population. This report summarizes the pilots during the 2008-2009 pilot period. Approaches varied substantially according to each community’s needs, priorities and resources. Some of the pilots principally focused on providing opportunities for LMI individuals to obtain financial education and a “second chance account,” if they had previous difficulties managing accounts. Other sites promoted accounts more broadly to individuals who were outside of the banking system. A third set of communities focused principally on developing the infrastructure to deliver high quality financial education for LMI individuals, including children, as a precursor to providing access to financial services. Despite these different approaches, similar findings were found in multiple communities. These common findings include: financial institutions are critical partners in delivering appropriate products and services; effective delivery of financial education is critical to promote sound use of financial products and services; both financial access and financial education can and should be delivered in diverse venues; and a strong collaborative effort can lead beyond accounts and education to provide new initiatives and ideas to address the many complex challenges facing LMI individuals. The report concludes with a description of the Treasury's development of a national Bank On USA initiative which will promote access to affordable and appropriate financial services and basic Consumer Credit products to benefit LMI individuals and households, building on lessons learned.

The Medical Expenditure Panel Survey (MEPS), which began in 1996, is a set of large-scale surveys of families and individuals, their medical providers (doctors, hospitals, pharmacies, etc.), and employers across the United States. MEPS collects data on the specific health services that Americans use, how frequently they use them, the cost of these services, and how they are paid for, as well as data on the cost, scope, and breadth of health insurance held by and available to U.S. workers. MEPS currently has two major components: the Household Component and the Insurance Component. The Household Component provides data from a nationally representative sample of 10,000 – 15,000 families and individuals in selected communities across the United States. The MEPS sample is a nationally representative subsample of households that participated in the prior year's National Health Interview Survey (conducted by the National Center for Health Statistics). During the household interviews, MEPS collects detailed information for each person in the household on the following: demographic characteristics, health conditions, health status, use of medical services, charges and source of payments, access to care, satisfaction with care, health insurance coverage, income, and employment. The panel design of the survey, which features several rounds of interviewing covering two full calendar years, makes it possible to determine how changes in respondents' health status, income, employment, eligibility for public and private insurance coverage, use of services, and payment for care are related. Data are available for the national sample through 2010.

The Residential Finance Survey (RFS) was conducted in the year following the decennial census from 1951 – 2001. It is designed to provide data about the financing of nonfarm, privately owned, residential properties. The 2001 RFS was conducted by the U.S. Census Bureau for the Department of Housing and Urban Development. A representative national sample of about 68,000 residential addresses was drawn from the address file for Census 2000. These addresses were limited to counties and independent cities in the 394 sampling areas used for the Census Bureau's American Housing Survey National Sample. The RFS includes questions on the financing of homeowner and rental properties, including detailed characteristics of the mortgages, properties, and property owners. Detailed information for all first mortgages including: application method, reasons for refinancing, amounts and uses of cash-outs, year of origination, use of mortgage insurance or guarantees, type of mortgage, origination amounts and current balance, interest rate, interest rate buydowns, original and remaining term of the mortgage, indexes and caps used for ARMs, and items included in and amounts of monthly payments. Similar, but less detailed, information is reported for junior mortgages and home equity lines of credit.