<p>Two sources come to my mind for USA. Both sources, as far as I can remember, are free.</p>
<ol>
<li><p>CES - Consumer Expenditure Survey: This has information about expenditures and incomes of consumers across USA at different points of time. You can access the data from BLS <a href="https://www.bls.gov/cex/" rel="nofollow noreferrer">https://www.bls.gov/cex/</a></p>
</li>
<li><p>ATUS - American Time Use Data: This collects the time people spend doing things. You can access this from BLS, <a href="https://www.bls.gov/tus/" rel="nofollow noreferrer">https://www.bls.gov/tus/</a></p>
</li>
</ol>
<p>IPUMS also has access to ATUS, along with MTUS (involving different countries).</p>
<p>Also, you can check this paper; I do not remember if their data is available for free, but it may be helpful to you:</p>
<p>Bajari, Patrick, Denis Nekipelov, Stephen P. Ryan, and Miaoyu Yang. 2015. &quot;Machine Learning Methods for Demand Estimation.&quot; American Economic Review, 105 (5): 481-85. DOI: 10.1257/aer.p20151021</p>

CC BY-SA 4.0
2021-11-01T14:24:24.387Z
2021-11-01T14:24:24.387Z
erik
<p>I was looking at an app on Iphone which allows people to track their meals, and trying to think, how would I build variance of taste into an economics sim ? And the only thing I can think is raw consumer profiles, which this app which stores things online would likely be collecting. But it would be collecting these things and SELLING them. Is there a free place I can say find data samples related to what people eat daily or what forms of entertainment they most frequently consume ? It seems like a very difficult thing to emulate really, but at least I might gain a few insights.</p>

CC BY-SA 4.0
2021-11-01T14:21:37.277Z
Welcome to Econ StackExchange. Please consider mentioning a country whose data you are looking for.
erik
<consumption><data>
Is there a place to get raw consumer data?
John Sohn
# Is there a place to get raw consumer data?

(Asked by: username_0 on 2021-10-30)

I was looking at an app on Iphone which allows people to track their meals, and trying to think, how would I build variance of taste into an economics sim ? And the only thing I can think is raw consumer profiles, which this app which stores things online would likely be collecting. But it would be collecting these things and SELLING them. Is there a free place I can say find data samples related to what people eat daily or what forms of entertainment they most frequently consume ? It seems like a very difficult thing to emulate really, but at least I might gain a few insights.

**Tags:** consumption, data

> **Comments:**
> **username_1**: Welcome to Econ StackExchange. Please consider mentioning a country whose data you are looking for.  

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## 1 answers

### Answer by username_1 on 2021-11-01. Score: 1

Two sources come to my mind for USA. Both sources, as far as I can remember, are free.

1. CES - Consumer Expenditure Survey: This has information about expenditures and incomes of consumers across USA at different points of time. You can access the data from BLS <https://www.bls.gov/cex/>
2. ATUS - American Time Use Data: This collects the time people spend doing things. You can access this from BLS, <https://www.bls.gov/tus/>

IPUMS also has access to ATUS, along with MTUS (involving different countries).

Also, you can check this paper; I do not remember if their data is available for free, but it may be helpful to you:

Bajari, Patrick, Denis Nekipelov, Stephen P. Ryan, and Miaoyu Yang. 2015. "Machine Learning Methods for Demand Estimation." American Economic Review, 105 (5): 481-85. DOI: 10.1257/aer.p20151021


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