Flow of Funds: Financial Accounts of the United States (Z.1)

The Financial Accounts of the United States (Federal Reserve Z.1 statistical release, long known as the Flow of Funds Accounts) are the macro-accounting backbone for the US economy: quarterly balance sheets and transaction flows for every sector (households and nonprofits, nonfinancial business, government, each financial sector, and the rest of the world) that sum to a consistent whole. It is the standard source for household net worth, sector leverage, credit growth, and who-holds-what. This page is the distilled access recipe.

• Cost: free, no paywall, no key.
• Coverage: quarterly, 1945:Q4 onward; released about 10 weeks after quarter end, with an earlier preview of the upcoming release.
• Format: a bulk CSV package (z1_csv_files.zip, about 7.5 MB, 586 per-table CSVs plus a data dictionary), per-series via the Data Download Program, or the same series on FRED.
• Home: https://www.federalreserve.gov/releases/z1/

Access

No key, bulk CSV package (recommended for pipelines)

The download path is stamped with the release date, which changes every quarter; resolve the latest from the release page, or use the stable preview path for the upcoming quarter.

https://www.federalreserve.gov/releases/z1/20260319/z1_csv_files.zip   # 2025:Q4 release
https://www.federalreserve.gov/releases/z1/preview/z1_csv_files.zip     # next-quarter preview

import io, zipfile, requests, pandas as pd

url = "https://www.federalreserve.gov/releases/z1/20260319/z1_csv_files.zip"
z = zipfile.ZipFile(io.BytesIO(requests.get(url).content))
# Each table is its own CSV under csv/; b101 is households & nonprofits.
hh = pd.read_csv(z.open("csv/b101.csv"))

Data Download Program (per series)

For a handful of series rather than whole tables, the DDP at https://www.federalreserve.gov/datadownload/ (release Z1) emits CSV/XML for a selected set; series are addressed by mnemonic (e.g. FL152000005.Q).

Gotchas (the ones that bite pipelines)

The reason to read this page rather than the Z.1 PDF. Verified against the live package on the date above.

• 586 separate CSVs, one per table. The zip is not one tidy file: you pick the table (b101 household balance sheet, b103 nonfinancial corporate, l108 and friends, etc.). A data_dictionary/ folder in the package maps table and series codes.
• Series-code grammar. Columns are mnemonics like FL152000005.Q: a two-letter prefix (FL = level / amounts outstanding, LM = level at market value, FU = unadjusted flow, FA = flow at a seasonally adjusted annual rate, FR = revaluation, FV = other volume change), then a six-or-more digit sector-plus-instrument code, then a .Q / .A frequency suffix. Decode with the Fed’s series structure (the data_dictionary/ folder spells out each series); do not guess from the number.
• Levels vs flows are different tables. b and l tables are levels (stocks); f and fu tables are flows (transactions). Do not difference a level series and call it a flow.
• Change in a level is not the flow. A level change = transactions (f) + revaluations (FR) + other volume changes. Use the f-series when you mean actual flows; price changes are netted out there.
• Flows are seasonally adjusted annual rates. The f-tables report SAAR; levels are not annualized. Read the table header before scaling.
• Households and nonprofits are lumped. The headline household table (sector 15) combines households with nonprofit organizations; a nonprofit-only split exists in separate tables if you need households alone.
• The bulk URL date moves. The dated path (/20260319/) is only good for one release. Pin it for reproducibility, or script resolving the latest date from the release page.

Tables you actually need

Table	Sector / content	Type
b101	Households and nonprofits balance sheet (net worth)	levels
b103	Nonfinancial corporate business balance sheet	levels
l108	Households credit-market instruments	levels
f101	Households flows	flows
s tables	Sector income and saving statements	mixed
data_dictionary/	Table and series-code descriptions	reference

Standard operations

• Household net worth / wealth: read b101; state real vs nominal and the quarter, since the series is revised.
• Credit and leverage: combine the relevant l level table with the f flow table; never infer flows by differencing levels.
• Sector consistency: the accounts are designed to sum across sectors; use that as a sanity check rather than mixing in unrelated sources.
• Pin the release. Record the dated release path (or “preview”) and your access date; every quarter revises history.

Citation

Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System. Financial Accounts of the United States (Z.1 statistical release). Washington: Federal Reserve Board. Cite the specific release date and your access date.