Index basics · Consumer Price Index
Consumer Price Index for All Urban Consumers(CPI-U)
The headline U.S. inflation measure — a monthly price index covering urban consumers, about 93% of the population.
The CPI-U is the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics' headline inflation measure. Each month, BLS prices a weighted basket of the goods and services urban households actually buy — food, rent, gasoline, medical care, and hundreds of other items — and publishes the result as an index: a number that tracks how prices have changed relative to a base period, not a dollar amount. 'All Urban Consumers' covers residents of urban and metropolitan areas, roughly 93% of the U.S. population; rural nonmetropolitan households, farm households, and people in institutions or on military bases are outside its scope.
The index level itself is rarely the headline — the inflation rate people quote is the percent change in the index, usually over 12 months. A companion index, the CPI-W (urban wage earners and clerical workers), is the one used for Social Security cost-of-living adjustments; every figure on pumsdata is the CPI-U, shown as the verbatim BLS index values with percent changes derived from them.
Also known as: CPI, Consumer Price Index, headline CPI, cost of living index.
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Consumer Price Index for All Urban Consumers — FAQ
What is consumer price index for all urban consumers in inflation data?+
The headline U.S. inflation measure — a monthly price index covering urban consumers, about 93% of the population. The CPI-U is the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics' headline inflation measure. Each month, BLS prices a weighted basket of the goods and services urban households actually buy — food, rent, gasoline, medical care, and hundreds of other items — and publishes the result as an index: a number that tracks how prices have changed relative to a base period, not a dollar amount. 'All Urban Consumers' covers residents of urban and metropolitan areas, roughly 93% of the U.S. population; rural nonmetropolitan households, farm households, and people in institutions or on military bases are outside its scope.
Why does consumer price index for all urban consumers matter?+
The index level itself is rarely the headline — the inflation rate people quote is the percent change in the index, usually over 12 months. A companion index, the CPI-W (urban wage earners and clerical workers), is the one used for Social Security cost-of-living adjustments; every figure on pumsdata is the CPI-U, shown as the verbatim BLS index values with percent changes derived from them.
Where does this inflation data come from?+
All figures come from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics Consumer Price Index. pumsdata is an independent product and is not affiliated with the BLS.