Survey of Consumer Finances

This triennial survey is the only source of representative information on the structure of U.S. families’ finances. The survey collects data on the assets, debts, income, work history, pension rights, use of financial services, and attitudes of a sample of U.S. families. Because the ownership of some assets is relatively concentrated in a small number of families, the survey makes a special effort to ensure proper representation of such assets by systematically oversampling wealthier families. For the 2025 SCF, the Board will conduct (1) up to 150 interviews averaging about 110 minutes (pretest) to be obtained in a test or series of tests of the survey procedures in 2025 and (2) up to 7,000 interviews averaging about 110 minutes (main survey) between April 2025 and March 2026. The pretest interviews and surveys will be conducted by an outside contractor. The pretest and the main survey will be collected by a field interviewer, either in person or on the phone, using a computer-assisted personal interview (CAPI) instrument. There is no hardcopy version of the questionnaire other than the text of the computer program. The wording of the survey questions will be modified to reflect the outcome of the pretest, but it is anticipated that such changes will be relatively small.

The latest form for Survey of Consumer Finances expires 2027-08-31 and can be found here.

Pretest

Federal Enterprise Architecture: Economic Development - Financial Sector Oversight