During the past decade, under the stimulus of changed economic conditions and changed attitudes toward policy formation, real progress has been made in the measurement of consumption in the United States. Concepts have been clarified considerably, techniques for gathering information have been improved, some information has been collected, and a certain amount of lay as well as professional support has been developed for further use of public funds to measure consumption. Work in this field, however, is still in a pioneering stage, particularly with reference to the measurement of changes in the physical volume of consumption.