Fact Sheet: the Bloomberg Consumer Comfort Index

Fact Sheet: The Bloomberg Consumer Comfort Index

The Bloomberg Consumer Comfort Index is a weekly, nationally representative survey of consumer attitudes that has been conducted on a continuous basis since December 1985. The survey is based on random-sample telephone interviews in which 250 adults per week are asked their views on the condition of the national economy, their personal finances and the buying climate. Results are combined and reported in a four-week rolling average.

The CCI is derived by subtracting the percentage of adults with negative responses to each of the three questions from the percentage with positive views on that question. The resulting subindex numbers are then added and divided by three. Results can range from +100 (everyone positive on all three measures) to -100. In addition to overall findings, results are available for the full index and for each of the three subindex questions among population groups, e.g. by income, sex, age, region and others.

In addition to the weekly CCI, the Bloomberg consumer survey includes a monthly measure of expectations – whether Americans think the economy is getting better, getting worse, or staying the same – based on 500 interviews in the first two weeks of each month.

Licensed exclusively to Bloomberg since January 2010, the CCI is owned and produced by Langer Research Associates of New York, with field work by Social Science Research Solutions of Media, Pa. The survey uses an overlapping dual-frame sample of randomly generated landline and cellular telephone numbers designed to represent the adult population of the continental United States, with random in-household selection of landline respondents. Data are weighted to adjust for probabilities of selection dependent on household size and telephone usage, to U.S. Census Bureau data for age, sex, race, education, metro status and region, and to type of phone service.

See here for a paper describing the Bloomberg CCI’s inclusion of cell phone and Spanish interviews beginning in summer 2012, and here for a paper examining the index’s concurrent and predictive validity in comparison with other economic indicators.

Latest update: June 2012