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NIPA Handbook: Concepts and Methods of the U.S. National Income and Product Accounts

The "NIPA Handbook" begins with introductory chapters that describe the fundamental concepts, definitions, classifications, and accounting framework that underlie the national income and product accounts (NIPAs) of the United States and the general sources and methods that are used to prepare the NIPA estimates. It continues with chapters that describe the sources and methods used to prepare the expenditure and income components of the accounts. Finally, it provides an appendix that defines each entry in the seven summary NIPA accounts and a glossary of terms that are associated with the NIPAs.

The Handbook is intended to be a living reference that can be updated to reflect changes in concepts or methodology as they are introduced into the NIPAs. These chapters reflect the 2024 annual update of the NIPAs. As many of the source data changes made in 2025 may be temporary, the Handbook has not been updated to reflect the 2025 annual update. The source data incorporated for the update are described in the table “NIPA Revisions: Components Detail and Major Source Data and Conceptual Changes Incorporated, 2020-2024” and the article “Updated Summary of NIPA Methodologies.” Changes to methods and presentations introduced as part of the update are described in “The 2025 Annual Update of the National Economic Accounts.”

Additional chapters will be incorporated as they become available.

All-Chapters PDF | December 2024