The U.S. Census Bureau, together with the Bureau of Transportation Statistics (BTS), has released an experimental data product providing additional geographic granularity to existing Commodity Flow Survey (CFS) estimates. These Subarea estimates divide the existing 132 CFS Areas into 329 Subareas such that each Subarea consists of at least one county and – in general – at least 10,000 CFS shipments.

Data are available for origin by destination by commodity group at one mode of transportation – combined truck and ground parcel.  Finer geographic detail is provided for origins and destinations that are geographically near each other.  For rarer, long-distance shipments, paired geographies are aggregated at either the origin or the destination.

To capture both the incoming and the outgoing shipment activity from a state/metropolitan area, two tables are provided as part of this experimental data release.  One table lists the CFS Subareas as shipment origins and the second lists the CFS Subareas as shipment destinations.

This experimental data product, like the Small Business Pulse Survey and the Monthly State Retail Sales Report (MSRS), represents a step toward providing more granular and relevant products that meet data users’ needs, while minimizing burden on respondents.  With the CFS Subarea estimates, additional geographic detail is provided to supplement our main CFS products.

For more information on this product, see the 2017 Commodity Flow Survey Subarea Estimates Methodology.  This is the first time these experimental data have been made available publicly on the Census Bureau webpage and comments from data users about the content and usefulness of these data are appreciated.

This experimental data product is subject to disclosure avoidance thresholds and may not meet some of the Census Bureau’s statistical quality standards.

• 2017 CFS Subarea estimates by origin (Table O)
  Estimates of the total value, total weight, total ton-miles, average miles per shipment, and total number of shipments, for truck or ground parcel shipments. The areas for which the estimates are made are: origin (CFS Subarea) x destination (Census Region, state, CFS Area, or CFS Subarea) x commodity group.
• 2017 CFS Subarea estimates by destination (Table D)
  Estimates of the total value, total weight, total ton-miles, average miles per shipment, and total number of shipments, for truck or ground parcel shipments. The areas for which the estimates are made are: origin (Census Region, state, CFS Area, or CFS Subarea) x destination (CFS Subarea) x commodity group.
• County-CFS Subarea lookup table
  
• CFS Subarea maps by state
• 2017 CFS Subareas Shapefile
  

May 21, 2021