The U.S. Census Bureau, together with the Bureau of Transportation Statistics (BTS), has released the 2022 Commodity Flow Survey (CFS) Subarea Estimates experimental data product providing additional geographic granularity to existing CFS estimates. These Subarea estimates divide the existing 134 CFS Areas into 329 Subareas such that each Subarea consists of at least one county and – in general – at least 10,000 CFS shipments.

This is the second time this experimental data has been made available publicly on the Census Bureau’s experimental data product webpage. No changes, except for the addition of two subareas to reflect changes to the standard CFS Area geographic areas, have been made to the methodology or to the tables of estimates being published when compared with the 2017 CFS Subareas experimental product.

Data are available for origin by destination by commodity group at one mode of transportation – truck and ground parcel combined. 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.

Note that these estimates of shipment activity flowing into and out of CFS subareas are contained in a single table; whereas the 2017 estimates were provided in two separate tables. 

The CFS Subarea experimental data product 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 details are provided to supplement our main CFS products.

For more information on this product, see the 2022 Commodity Flow Survey Subarea Estimates Methodology.