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About the FRED Blog

These brief articles use data and graphing features in FRED®, our free data service. They illustrate timely economic concepts and best practices for using data. Views expressed are not necesarily those of the St. Louis Fed or Federal Reserve System.

The takeaway

Data agencies often recalibrate speedier, high-frequency survey data with lower-frequency, more-comprehensive efforts. The Census does this with its Annual Integrated Economic Survey.

The data

Our FRED graph above compares two sets of Census survey data: their Annual Integrated Economic Survey (AIES) retail trade sales data (blue line) and their Monthly Retail Trade Survey data (green line). If you add up the 12 monthly values for any year, you get the AIES annual total for that year, within a few million dollars. That's not a big difference if you consider the annual values are in the trillions. In 2024, the latest full-year data available at the time of this writing, both came to about $7.107 trillion.

How does the annual survey sharpen the monthly survey data?

The AIES works as a foundational benchmark. Monthly and quarterly Census surveys are built for speed: They use smaller samples and are best at measuring change from one period to the next. After the monthly surveys are taken, the AIES uses a much larger sample and more detail and recalibrates the levels for those monthly surveys. That is, when new annual results arrive, the faster series are revised to match it. The AIES also updates the Census Business Register, the master list from which other economic surveys draw their samples.

Other statistical agencies perform similar adjustments. The Bureau of Economic Analysis uses this process to derive industry output for gross domestic product (GDP) data. The Bureau of Labor Statistics uses it for the producer price index and productivity measures. And the Federal Reserve Board uses it for their index of industrial production.

The scope of the AIES

More details about the AIES can be found on the Census website.

How this graph was created: Search FRED for and select “Retail Trade: Sales.” Click the “Edit Graph” button and select the “Add Line” tab to search for “Retail Sales: Retail Trade.” Don’t forget to click “Add data series.”

Suggested by Diego Mendez-Carbajo.

About the FRED Blog

These brief articles use data and graphing features in FRED®, our free data service. They illustrate timely economic concepts and best practices for using data. Views expressed are not necesarily those of the St. Louis Fed or Federal Reserve System.