Editing Consumer confidence index (section)

== In the United States ==
[[File:U.S. Consumer Confidence Index.png|thumb|US consumer confidence index 1966–2012{{Update inline|date=August 2021}}]]

In the United States, [[The Conference Board]], an independent [[Economics|economic]] research organization, issues monthly measures of consumer confidence based on 5,000 households.  Such measurement is indicative of the [[Consumption (economics)|consumption]] component level of the [[gross domestic product]].  [[The Federal Reserve]] looks at the CCI when determining interest rate changes.

[[Consumer confidence]] is defined by The Conference Board as the degree of optimism on the state of the [[United States]] economy that consumers are expressing through their activities of savings and spending. Global consumer confidence is not measured. Country-by-country analysis indicates huge variance around the globe. In an interconnected global economy, tracking international consumer confidence is a lead indicator of [[Economic history|economic trend]]s.<ref name="Benjamin">{{cite web
  | last = Benjamin
  | first = Colin
  | author-link = Colin Benjamin
  | date = 30 October 2008
  | url = http://www.marshallplace.com.au/consumer-confidence
  | title = Consumer Confidence – Global Monitor of Consumer Sentiment Index Reports and Country Update on Consumer Confidence Changes
  | website = MarshallPlace.com.au
  | access-date = 2009-02-24
  | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20131018095501/http://marshallplace.com.au/consumer-confidence
  | archive-date = 18 October 2013
  }}</ref>

The consumer confidence index started in 1967 and is benchmarked to 1985 = 100.{{How|date=August 2021|reason=How, in 1967, did they benchmark it against a value from 1985? If no time machine, perhaps this sentence is highly misleading.}} The index is calculated each month on the basis of a household survey of consumers' opinions on current conditions and future expectations of the economy. Opinions on current conditions make up 40% of the index, with expectations of future conditions comprising the remaining 60%. In the glossary on its website, The Conference Board defines the Consumer Confidence Survey as "a monthly report detailing consumer attitudes and buying intentions, with data available by age, income and region".

Each month, The Conference Board surveys 5,000 US households. The survey consists of five questions that ask the respondents' opinions about the following:<ref name="NewsHour-May2001">{{cite web
  | date = May 2001
  | url = https://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/economy/consumer_confidence/
  | title = Consumer Confidence: An Online NewsHour Special Report
  | work = [[The NewsHour with Jim Lehrer]]
  | publisher = [[PBS]]
  | access-date = 2009-02-24
}}</ref>

# Current business conditions
# Business conditions for the next six months
# Current employment conditions
# Employment conditions for the next six months
# Total family income for the next six months

Survey participants are asked to answer each question as "positive", "negative" or "neutral." The preliminary results from the consumer confidence survey are released on the last Tuesday of each month at 10am EST.

Once the data have been gathered, a proportion known as the "relative value" is calculated for each question separately. Each question's positive responses are divided by the sum of its positive and negative responses. The relative value for each question is then compared against each relative value from 1985. This comparison of the relative values results in an "index value" for each question.

The index values for all five questions are then averaged together to form the consumer confidence index; the average of index values for questions one and three form the present situation index, and the average of index values for questions two, four and five form the expectations index. The data are calculated for the United States as a whole and for each of the country's nine census regions.

=== Other indexes ===
In addition to the Conference Board's CCI, other survey-based indices attempt to track consumer confidence in the United States:
* The [[University of Michigan Consumer Sentiment Index]] (MCSI) is a consumer confidence index published monthly by the [[University of Michigan]]. It uses an ongoing, nationally representative survey based on telephonic household interviews to gather information on consumer expectations regarding the overall economy.

Given the potential for sampling biases of individual survey reports, researchers and investors try sometimes to average the values of different index reports into a single aggregated measure of consumer confidence.