Livingston Survey

The Livingston Survey was started in 1946 by the late columnist Joseph Livingston. It is the oldest continuous survey of economists' expectations. It summarizes the forecasts of economists from industry, government, banking, and academia. The Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia took responsibility for the survey in 1990.

The Livingston Survey's web page offers the actual releases, documentation, mean and median forecasts of all the respondents as well as the individual responses from each economist. The individual responses are kept confidential by using identification numbers.

Recent Releases Last update: June 7, 2019 at 10:00 a.m. ET

June 2019 (66 KB, 10 pages)
December 2018 (86 KB, 10 pages)

Historical Data

Data Files: Separate files containing the mean, median, and individual forecasts, as well as the measures of cross-sectional dispersion.
Errata: Shows corrections to the historical data.

Resources

Documentation: Provides information on all variables, transformations, and files in the survey. Last update: November 2014
Data Sources and Descriptions: Shows the specifications of the economic variables being forecast. Last update: December 2014
Academic Bibliography: Contains a comprehensive list of academic articles that discuss or use the Livingston Survey.
Business Review article: "The Livingston Survey: Still Useful After All These Years"
Dates of Previous Surveys: Shows the release dates of previous surveys

Other Data Sets

Next Release Date

The next release date is
Friday, June 7, 2019, at 10:00 a.m. ET.

The complete list of release dates is also available.

Archived Surveys

View previous releases of the Livingston Survey going back to 1991.

All surveys are in PDF format.

Questions?

For additional information about the survey, send e-mail to: phil.liv@phil.frb.org.