Geographies · Consumer Price Index
CPI geography
BLS publishes the CPI for 58 areas — the U.S. city average, regions, city-size classes, and about two dozen metros — each measuring its own price change over time.
BLS publishes CPI-U indexes for 58 areas: the national 'U.S. city average' plus four census regions, city-size classes, and roughly two dozen metropolitan areas. Each area's index measures price change over time within that area — it does not measure cost-of-living differences between places. Every series has its own base period, so a higher index level in one metro than another says nothing about which city is more expensive; only the percent changes are comparable. Metro indexes are also noisier than the national one, and many metros are published bimonthly — every other month — so a metro's latest reading can be a month or two older than the national index.
One caveat applies to every CPI series regardless of geography: October 2025 is a real hole in the record. The federal government shutdown halted CPI collection, and the month was never published. Charts on pumsdata show a gap there, and year-over-year or month-over-month figures skip any pair that touches the missing month — the gap is never filled in by interpolation.
Also known as: metro CPI, regional CPI, local inflation, city inflation.
Data: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Consumer Price Index (CPI-U). pumsdata is not affiliated with BLS.
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CPI geography — FAQ
What is cpi geography in inflation data?+
BLS publishes the CPI for 58 areas — the U.S. city average, regions, city-size classes, and about two dozen metros — each measuring its own price change over time. BLS publishes CPI-U indexes for 58 areas: the national 'U.S. city average' plus four census regions, city-size classes, and roughly two dozen metropolitan areas. Each area's index measures price change over time within that area — it does not measure cost-of-living differences between places. Every series has its own base period, so a higher index level in one metro than another says nothing about which city is more expensive; only the percent changes are comparable. Metro indexes are also noisier than the national one, and many metros are published bimonthly — every other month — so a metro's latest reading can be a month or two older than the national index.
Why does cpi geography matter?+
One caveat applies to every CPI series regardless of geography: October 2025 is a real hole in the record. The federal government shutdown halted CPI collection, and the month was never published. Charts on pumsdata show a gap there, and year-over-year or month-over-month figures skip any pair that touches the missing month — the gap is never filled in by interpolation.
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.