Economic event · Survey

Consumer Confidence Surveys

Regular surveys that ask households how they judge their own finances, the job market and the economy, now and in the months ahead, and turn the answers into an index.

Around a release

Spreads may widen, prices may gap and an order may be filled at a different price from the one requested. Order anatomy

The release

How it is measured.

A sample of households answers a fixed set of questions. The share giving unfavourable answers is set against the share giving favourable ones, and the result is expressed as an index against a base period or as a balance. Most surveys publish a present-conditions part and an expectations part, and some also ask what inflation people expect.

Why markets watch it.

Household spending is the largest part of most economies, and the surveys arrive before spending figures do. The expectations part and the inflation expectations are followed by central banks, which watch whether people still expect inflation to stay low.

How it is commonly misread.

What people say and what they then spend can differ for long periods. Samples are small, preliminary readings are revised, and answers have been shown to follow the price of petrol, the stock market and the respondent’s politics. The best-known United States surveys are separate pieces of work and regularly disagree with each other.

An explanation of why the release is followed, not a view on what any market will do when it is published. Educational information, not investment advice or a recommendation to trade.

Commonly monitored alongside it

Currencies and instruments that market participants commonly follow around this release. Listed for context; inclusion says nothing about direction.

Primary sources

Who publishes it.

The figures, the methodology and the release schedule are on the publisher’s own website. That is the only place this page sends you for a date.

Publishers of the Consumer Confidence Surveys, by area, with links to the primary source
Area	Publisher	Primary source
United States	The Conference Board	conference-board.org (opens in a new tab)
United States	University of Michigan, Surveys of Consumers	sca.isr.umich.edu (opens in a new tab)
Euro area	European Commission	economy-finance.ec.europa.eu (opens in a new tab)

Cadence: Monthly; some surveys publish a preliminary reading first
Dates: Not shown on this page: GIO4X keeps no economic calendar of its own. TradingView’s calendar · All publishers’ pages

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