The Commodity Flow Survey (CFS) is a joint effort by the Bureau of Transportation Statistics (BTS), U.S. Department of
Transportation, and the U.S. Census Bureau, U.S. Department of Commerce and is required by law. The survey is the
primary
source
of national and state-level data on domestic freight shipments by American businesses. As a shipper-based survey, the
CFS
collects
information on how U.S. establishments transport raw materials and finished goods; the types of commodities shipped by
mode of
transportation; the value, weight, origin, and destinations of shipments (including exports). The CFS does not include
imports or
shipments originating in any U.S. territories. Industry coverage includes: Mining, Manufacturing, Wholesale Trade,
Select
Retail
and Services, and some auxiliary establishments (e.g., warehouses) of in-scope, multi-unit, and retail companies.
Estimates are derived from the Commodity Flow Survey Tables.
In cases where variables descriptions are slightly changed between survey years, they have been adjusted to
remain
comparable
between years.
In the case of average distance per shipment, the 2022 distances are separate from the 2012 and 2017 distance due
to
a change
in the calculation of distance. For the 2012 and 2017 data, the distance was based on GeoMiler software. For 2022
shipments,
the distance was calculated using great circle distances. These fields were kept separate to discourage direct
comparisons
between these values.
For more information and background information visit the CFS page
.
There are four tables comprising all of the CFS data available.
Area - This table provides the most detail on the geographic movements of freight as well as detailed
views of
commodities.
Temperature Control - This is a subset of the Area table that only tabulates data for temperature
controlled
shipments.
Export - This is a subset of the data that only provides data on export shipments. Additional fields
related
to
export shipments are included.
Hazmat - This is a subset of the data that only provides data on hazardous material. Additional fields
related to
hazardous materials are included.
Not all combinations of variables will produce a table. Please see the "Table Notes:" box for possible reasons.
If a table cannot be produced, please remove some of the grouping variables by resetting the option to US(total),
All
(total),
or Total.
Downloads are available. Downloads will produce the entire table, not just the current page and may take some time
to
download
depending on options.
Demonstration of Use
If a user was interested in finding the tons and value of Wood products moving from Arizona to each of the four Census
regions in
2017 and 2022, the following selections would be made:
For Origin select State and select Arizona in the list that appears.
For Destination select Region
For Years, select both 2017 and 2022
Commodity choose select commodity and click on Wood products in the list that appears
In Calculated Values, select both Tons and Value
All other options can remain the as Total. A table with 8 rows will display below. Most cells in the resulting table are
filled but
some are filled with an S
indicating that an estimate was not published due to quality or confidentiality concerns.
If further details were desired, the user could change the mode option from All to By mode and see the breakdown of
these
shipments by various modes of transport.
Note that as searches become more fine tuned, mode data is suppressed from the tables due to quality or
confidentiality
concerns.
If the user was also curious about the weight of these shipments they could change the shipment weight option from
total
to
Breakdown. It is can be seen that there
are no results at this level. To get information about the shipment weights of Wood products from Arizona, the user
would
have to
relax some of the filtering.
In this case, setting the Mode back to total and the Destination to US (total) will produce estimates.
Suggested Citation:
U.S. Department of Transportation, Bureau of Transportation Statistics; and, U.S. Department of Commerce, U.S.
Census
Bureau.
(2025-06-26). [enter table name you accessed/downloaded here: Area/Temperature Control/Export/Hazmat] [dataset].
2022
Commodity Flow
Survey. Accessed [enter date you accessed/downloaded this table here] from https://www2.census.gov/programs-surveys/cfs/data/.
Table Series Selection
Table Options
Table Notes:
These estimates are published estimates found here: https://www2.census.gov/programs-surveys/cfs/data/.
Some
combinations of variables above will not produce results. If an empty table is returned below, return some options
to
a more
general setting like total or US.
Other Suggestions will be listed here.
Table Options
Table Notes:
These estimates are published estimates found here: https://www2.census.gov/programs-surveys/cfs/data/.
Some
combinations of variables above will not produce results. If an empty table is returned below, return some options
to
a more
general setting like total or US.
Use the "Show notes and source" button for more information about table values and suggested citations
Other Suggestions will be listed here.
Table Options
Table Notes:
These estimates are published estimates found here: https://www2.census.gov/programs-surveys/cfs/data/.
Some
combinations of variables above will not produce results. If an empty table is returned below, return some options
to
a more
general setting like total or US.
Use the "Show notes and source" button for more information about table values and suggested citations
Other Suggestions will be listed here.
Table Options
Table Notes:
These estimates are published estimates found here: https://www2.census.gov/programs-surveys/cfs/data/.
Some
combinations of variables above will not produce results. If an empty table is returned below, return some options
to
a more
general setting like total or US.
Use the "Show notes and source" button for more information about table values and suggested citations
Other Suggestions will be listed here.
Symbols Legend
Z - Rounds to Zero.
X - Not Applicable.
N - Not available or not comparable
S - Estimate does not meet publication standards because of high
sampling
variability, poor response quality, or other concerns
about the estimate quality. Unpublished estimates derived from this table by subtraction are subject to these same
limitations and
should not be attributed to the U.S. Census Bureau. For a description of publication standards and the total quantity
response
rate, see link to program
methodology page.
API call:
Note: The API has a default limit of 10,000 rows of data. Add "&$limit=" and a number at the end of the API call to increase the
limit.
