Preview of the 2026 Annual Update of the National Economic Accounts

By Lisa Mataloni  |  June 24, 2026

The U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA) plans to release the results of the annual update of the National Economic Accounts (NEAs), which include the National Income and Product Accounts (NIPAs) and the Industry Economic Accounts, beginning on September 30, 2026.1 With improvements in concurrent production and publication of BEA statistics, the release of the annual update of the Regional Economic Accounts will also begin on the same day for the first time. Improvements incorporated as part of the NEA annual update will impact all three sets of accounts, and each account will reflect the same update period: the first quarter of 2021 through the first quarter of 2026.

The update of the NEAs will result in revisions to gross domestic product (GDP), GDP by industry, gross domestic income, and related components. The reference year for index numbers and chained-dollar estimates will remain 2017.

Annual updates provide the opportunity to incorporate improvements that are generally of three types: (1) statistical changes to incorporate newly available and revised source data and to introduce new and improved methodologies, (2) changes in definitions to more accurately portray the evolving U.S. economy and to provide consistent comparisons with data for other national economies, and (3) changes in presentations to reflect the definitional and statistical changes, where necessary, or to provide additional data or perspectives for users. In addition, seasonally adjusted statistics are evaluated and revised during annual updates to reflect recalculated seasonal factors.2

With this year's annual update, BEA will implement several statistical and presentational changes.

The annual update will incorporate source data that are more complete and more detailed than those previously available, including the following:

  • U.S. Census Bureau Annual Integrated Economic Survey (AIES) data
  • U.S. Census Bureau Annual Survey of State and Local Government Finances
  • Internal Revenue Service (IRS) Statistics of Income (SOI) data
  • Federal government budget data
  • U.S. Department of Agriculture farm income statistics
  • National Science Foundation annual surveys

Incorporation of the AEIS. In past annual updates, BEA incorporated source data from several U.S. Census Bureau (Census) annual surveys, including the Annual Retail Trade Survey, the Annual Wholesale Trade Survey, the Service Annual Survey, and the Annual Survey of Manufactures. These surveys are now part of Census' new Annual Integrated Economic Survey. Census began releasing some data from the 2023 AIES data collection cycle in summer 2025. However, the detail required for the NEAs was not available in time to incorporate into last year's annual update.

For this year's annual update, BEA is evaluating the AIES data for 2023 and will incorporate as appropriate on a best-change basis.3 For series where data breaks or other challenges prevent BEA from using the data, BEA will use alternate data sources, based primarily on higher frequency survey data. Shortly after the annual update release, BEA will post a Survey of Current Business article detailing the results of the 2026 annual update and any alternative data sources used.

Incorporation of IRS SOI data. BEA will incorporate 2023 IRS SOI tabulations of tax returns for corporations, sole proprietorships, and partnerships in this year's update. Preliminary 2024 IRS data will not be available.

Incorporation of International Transactions Accounts. In addition to the source data listed above, the annual update will incorporate results from the 2026 annual update of BEA's International Transactions Accounts, released on June 24, 2026.4

Methodology improvements with this year's annual update focus mainly on improving deflation for several components, notably:

  • BEA will improve the deflation methodology for consumer spending on portfolio management and investment advice services to better reflect the timing and quantity of services consumed. The quantity of portfolio management services will be derived using a U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) Current Employment Statistics (CES)-based quantity extrapolator from the portfolio management and investment advice industry. This improved methodology will replace deflating nominal consumer spending on these services with the BLS producer price index (PPI) for portfolio management and investment advice services.
  • BEA will improve the deflator used for consumer spending on legal services.5 A BEA composite price index derived using detailed PPIs for selected legal services consumed by households will replace the consumer price index (CPI) for legal services beginning in 2024. The CPI for legal services, mostly unpublished since 2023, was last published for the month of September 2024. After that month, BEA used unpublished CPI values provided by BLS. However, the unpublished CPI values do not meet BLS publication quality guidelines and have recently exhibited erratic changes that cannot be corroborated and are not consistent with other source data.
  • BEA will improve the deflator for consumer spending on computer software and accessories to better reflect the composition of products included in this category. A BEA-composite price index derived using the CPI for computer software and accessories; the PPI for game software publishing; and the PPI for hosting, ASP (active server pages); and other IT (information technology) infrastructure provisioning services will replace the CPI for computer software and accessories.

A template showing presentational changes to the following NIPA Interactive Data Application tables will be posted to the BEA website on “Information on 2026 Annual Updates to the National, Industry, State, and County Statistics” a few weeks before the release:

  • Tables 5.11 and 5.11U. Capital Transfers Paid and Received, by Sector and by Type. BEA will add new lines and footnote details to separately capture and report transactions that are not currently identifiable within the published structure. New lines for “other capital transfers paid by state and local government”, “other capital transfers paid by persons”, capital transfers paid by the rest of the world to the federal government, and “other capital transfers received by the federal government” will improve transparency, data accuracy, and analytical usefulness by providing an explicit location for these transactions rather than combining them with broader residual categories.
  • Table 2.8.11. Real Personal Consumption Expenditures by Major Type of Product: Percent Change from Month One Year Ago. BEA will add a line for food prices in the addenda of Table 2.8.11 to facilitate user access to this calculation.

Additionally, a schedule of data availability will be posted on the “Information on 2026 Annual Updates” page several weeks before the release.

  1. NEA statistics are available in BEA's Interactive Data Application.
  2. For information on the NEA revision policy, data sources, and estimation methodologies, refer to NIPA Handbook: Concepts and Methods of the U.S. National Income and Product Accounts. Changes related to the 2026 annual update will be incorporated into the Handbook later this year.
  3. For information about incorporation of source data on a best-change basis, refer to the NIPA Handbook, “Chapter 4: Estimating Methods.”
  4. For more information, refer to Mai-Chi Hoang and Arsene Oka, “Preview of the 2026 Annual Update of the International Economic Accounts,” Survey of Current Business (April 30, 2026).
  5. Consumer spending on professional association dues is deflated using the PCE price index for legal services and therefore will also be impacted by this improvement.