Statistical Resources on the Web
Consumers

Comprehensive

• Statistical Universe (UMich Only)
  • Indexes and abstracts federal government statistics since 1974; business, association and state government data since 1980, and international agencies since 1983
  • Selected data from federal, state and international statistical compendia directly available through Power Tables
  • Abstracts is a fuller data base
  • Both are searchable by keyword and by category (e.g. city, income, disease)
  • About 15% of the abstracts link to full text
  • For items not hot-linked:
    • Write down abstract number (e.g. ASI 1997 9391-7) and bring to the Documents Center for the microfiche version

Arts and Recreation

• Recording Industry Association of America
  • Music sales by type of music as well as sex and age of consumer
• 1997 Survey of Public Participation in the Arts (NEA)
  • Adult participation or attendance in the arts (art museums, photography, ballet, opera, etc.) by race, age, and income level
  • Table 27 provides summary data for other activities (sports attendance, exercise class, amusement parks, etc.)

Consumer Confidence

• American Customer Satisfaction Index (UMich Business School)
  • Quarterly report since 1994 on consumer satisfaction with individual companies
  • Arranged by product or type of service with percent change over the previous survey and for the period
  • Satisfaction with local governments by type of service and type of area
  • Federal government satisfaction survey in 1999 arranged by agency, service, and type of consumer
• Consumer Confidence (Conference Board)
  • Current monthly consumer confidence data
  • Back files are available on Statistical Reference Index Microfiche as R4105-4 (see Documents Center)
• ICPSR Data Archives
  • Abstracts, documentation, and compressed data of the University of Michigan's Survey of Consumer Attitudes
  • Public opinion polls
  • Consumer Expenditure Survey by the Bureau of Labor Statistics
• Survey of Economic Expectations (University of Wisconsin)
  • Surveys between 1994 and 1998 asked about job, income, and other wealth-related expectations
  • Web site has data set, codebook, and pdf report
• Surveys of Consumer Attitudes (University of Michigan)
  • Monthly, quarterly and archived data, some since 1961, up until the last six months
  • Consumer confidence nationally and by region; some by income and age
  • Personal, business, unemployment, government economic policy, price, and interest rate expectations
  • Plans for buying major consumer goods, cars, and homes
  • Some tables in Adobe Acrobat format; others downable in HTML, CSV or XLS format
  • Includes technical documentation
  • The last six months of data are only available via purchase from Reuters
  • Microdata from the 1970s to 1990s is also available from ICPSR
• Washington Post/ABC Consumer Comfort Index
  • Consumer attitudes on the state of the economy, personal finances, and buying climate broken down by various demographic characteristics, home ownership, and politics
  • Weekly report archived since January 2005

Consumer Expenditures

• Consumer Expenditure Surveys(BLS)
  • Annual press release on consumer expenditures
  • Links to more detailed information, including the LABSTAT Selective Access Product Below
  • Bibliography of related products
• Consumer Expenditure Surveys Selective Access
  • Detailed information by consumer characteristics and type of product
  • Example: amount spent annually on entertainment by persons under 25
  • Time series begins with 1987
• Effect of Income on Appliances in U.S. Households
  • Percent ownership of various kitchen, laundry, home entertainment, and telephone appliances by household income, divided by fifths
  • Includes cell phones, wide screen TVs, refrigerators with ice makers
  • Based on the Department of Energy's 2001 Residential Energy Consumption Survey
• ICPSR Data Archives
  • Abstracts, documentation, and compressed data of the University of Michigan's Survey of Consumer Attitudes
  • Public opinion polls
  • Consumer Expenditure Survey by the Bureau of Labor Statistics
• Simply Map (UMich Only)
  • Displays and exports both data and maps of business and 1980-2000 Census data for states, counties, cities, zip codes, census tracts and block groups
  • Business variables include Quality of Life (crime, weather), types of businesses, retail sales, consumer expenditures, consumer price index, and types of households (young, middle age, old) by income
  • Create workspace; choose highest level of geography; choose variables; choose lowest level of geography; export image or data to your own workspace
  • Sample search for crime

Consumer Guides

• Consumers Index
  • Full text on product evaluations and recalls
  • MEDIA UNION LIBRARY: TS156.25 .C76
• Consumer Reports (UMich Only)
  • Full text with articles and brand comparisons beginning January 1988
  • Access through LEXIS Academic Universe/Sources
  • Type in name of magazine and your search term
  • Also in Proquest with a three-month delay
• Consumer's Action Handbook (GPO)
  • Tips on home financing, travel, door-to-door salesmen, etc.
  • Extensive directory of consumer protection agencies
• Consumer Search
  • Summarizes and synthesizes product reviews
  • Focus on major consumer items, such as cars, washing machines, and smoke detectors
  • Indicates the top choices from a number of consumer magazines

Consumer Protection

• Better Business Bureau
  • News reports on current scams
  • Tips on common consumer issues, such as repairing VCRs, sweepstakes, and child care services
  • Advice to businesses, including the handling of unruly customers
  • Directory of Better Business Bureaus by region and state
• Consumer.Gov
  • How to stop telemarketing; sample letters and phone numbers
  • Warning on major frauds, including phone switching
  • Major recalls
• Consumer Product Safety Commission
  • Online consumder protection publications (e.g. toys, carbon monoxide)
  • List of product recalls since 1994 arranged by date or searchable by subject
• Federal Trade Commission
  • Press releases, laws, and decisions on consumer issues
  • Jurisdiction includes marketing, advertising, credit, and service industries
• Household Products Database (NLM)
  • Extensive listing of normal household products (cleaners, lawn care, hobbies, personal care) by brand name
  • For each provides manufacturer contact information, acute and chronic health effects, ratings for flammability, health, and reactivity
  • Detailed listing of ingredients an disposal procedure
• Michigan Attorney General's Office
  • Considerable consumer protection information automobiles, homes and rent, gifts, fraud
  • Links in each section include Michigan statutes and national resources, such as the Federal Trade Commission
  • Subject directory of offices for filing a consumer complaint and an on-line consumer complaint submission form
• Recalls.Gov
  • List of currently active federal government recalls from several agencies
  • Includes consumer products, vehicles, boats, medicines, cosmetics, food and pesticides

Pets

• Pet Ownership
  • Brief data on pet ownership in the United States
  • Full text must be purchased from the American Veterinary Medical Association
  • Some data also in Documents Center on Statistical Reference Index microfiche (SRI A3100-1) and in paperbound version (not web version) of Statistical Abstract of the United States, Part 7: Recreation
• Consumer Expenditure Survey (BLS)
  • Gives annual total expenditures for pets, toys and playground equipment
  • Does not give figures for pets as a separate category
• 100 Years of U.S. Consumer Spending: Data for the Nation, New York and Boston (BLS)
  • Detailed analysis of consumer expenditures by type as compared to household characteristics and income, 1901-2003
  • One chapter for each decade includes charts and graphs as well as population changes
  • Concludes that income has risen faster than prices

Places

• Best Places to Live (Money Magazine)
  • Ranks 300 cities to live by economy, health, crime, housing, education, weather,leisure, transit, arts
  • Arranged by ranking and alphabetically by city
  • City pages include a description and relocation information as well as statistical data on the quality of life and the cost of living
  • Interactive interface permits the user to create own rankings

Tourism

• Economic Census: Administrative and Support and Waste Management Remediation Services
  • Travel and tourism included as industry under NAICS code 5615
  • National report from this census provides employment, payrolls and receipts for the industry
  • 983K in pdf format

• Statistical Abstract of the United States
  • Access Adobe Acrobat version
  • The end of the chapter on Parks, Recreation, and Travel includes numerous tables on travelers and revenues
  • U.S. travellers by type of travel, transportation mode, and visits to foreign countries
  • Foreign travellers to the U.S., their country of origin and expenditures
  • Domestic travel expenditures for the U.S. and individual states

• Survey of U.S. State and Territory Tourism Office Budgets
  • Annual report by the Travel Industry Association of America
  • Ranks states on their tourism budgets and expendtirues
  • SRI Microfiche 2006 A9135-2

• ITA Tourism Industries
  • Historical and current travel to the United States by country of origin
  • Total foreign national travel expenditures, cities and states of destination, and travel activities (e.g. shopping, amusement parks)
  • Annual data on U.S. travel abroad by country of destination

• Travel Industry Association of America
  • Press Room provides statistics on travel expenditures in the U.S. and by U.S. tourists
  • Employment in the travel industry

• World Tourism Organization
  • International agency coordinating worldwide tourist policies and improvements
  • International visitors and receipts by country appears in its Statistics Service/Highlights as a pdf file
  • Access to specialized data bases requires a password

Related Web Pages

• Cost of Living for Consumer Price Indexes
• Political Statistics for public opinion polls

Grace York, Coordinator, Documents Center
University of Michigan Library
Ankur Mehta, Documents Assistant, May 2002
Graphics by Sherry Piontek and Barbara Perles
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http://www.lib.umich.edu/govdocs/stcons.html