Index basics · Consumer Price Index
Core CPI
The CPI with food and energy stripped out — a steadier read on underlying inflation.
Core CPI is the all-items index excluding food and energy — BLS calls it 'All items less food and energy'. Food and energy are excluded because their prices are unusually volatile: harvests, weather, and global oil markets can swing them sharply in a single month, and those swings often reverse just as quickly. Stripping them out leaves a steadier series that better reveals the underlying trend in prices.
That makes core CPI a signal, not a cost-of-living measure — families obviously do pay for groceries and gasoline, and the headline CPI-U remains the measure of what living costs actually did. Economists and Federal Reserve watchers lean on core because persistent moves in it tend to predict where overall inflation is heading once the volatile components wash out. When headline and core diverge, the gap itself is informative: it says food and energy are doing something unusual.
Also known as: all items less food and energy, core inflation, underlying inflation.
Data: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Consumer Price Index (CPI-U). pumsdata is not affiliated with BLS.
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Core CPI — FAQ
What is core cpi in inflation data?+
The CPI with food and energy stripped out — a steadier read on underlying inflation. Core CPI is the all-items index excluding food and energy — BLS calls it 'All items less food and energy'. Food and energy are excluded because their prices are unusually volatile: harvests, weather, and global oil markets can swing them sharply in a single month, and those swings often reverse just as quickly. Stripping them out leaves a steadier series that better reveals the underlying trend in prices.
Why does core cpi matter?+
That makes core CPI a signal, not a cost-of-living measure — families obviously do pay for groceries and gasoline, and the headline CPI-U remains the measure of what living costs actually did. Economists and Federal Reserve watchers lean on core because persistent moves in it tend to predict where overall inflation is heading once the volatile components wash out. When headline and core diverge, the gap itself is informative: it says food and energy are doing something unusual.
Where does this inflation data come from?+
All figures come from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics Consumer Price Index for All Urban Consumers (CPI-U) — verbatim monthly index values from 1997 to the present for the U.S. city average, census regions, and about two dozen metro areas, with percent changes derived from the indexes. pumsdata is an independent product that makes the data easy to chart and compare, and is not affiliated with or endorsed by BLS.