University of Michigan Consumer Sentiment Index

The University of Michigan Consumer Sentiment Index is a consumer confidence index published monthly by the University of Michigan's Institute for Social Research. The index is normalized to have a value of 100 in the first quarter of 1966.

Each monthly survey contains approximately 50 core questions, each of which tracks a different aspect of consumer attitudes and expectations. The samples for the Surveys of Consumers are statistically designed to be representative of all American households, excluding those in Alaska and Hawaii. Currently, households are recruited via postal address based sampling, and about 1,000 interviews are conducted each month via web.

The consumer confidence measures were devised in the late 1940s by Professor George Katona at the University of Michigan. They have now developed into an ongoing, nationally representative survey based on telephonic household interviews. The Index of Consumer Sentiment (ICS) is developed from these interviews. The Index of Consumer Expectations (a sub-index of ICS) is included in the Leading Indicator Composite Index published by the U.S. Department of Commerce, Bureau of Economic Analysis.

Joanne Hsu was named the director and chief economist of the Consumer Sentiment Index in 2022.

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