U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics

Consumer Price Index

Note on a New, Supplemental Index of Consumer Price Change

The Bureau of Labor Statistics has begun publishing a consumer price index (CPI) called the Chained Consumer Price Index for All Urban Consumers, effective with release of July data in August 2002. Designated the C-CPI-U, the index supplements the existing indexes already produced by the BLS: the CPI for All Urban Consumers (CPI-U) and the CPI for Urban Wage Earners and Clerical Workers (CPI-W).

Data

• Current C-CPI-U indexes (table 1C), historical C-CPI-U indexes (table 24C), and historical C-CPI-U percent changes (table 26C) are available here in PDF format.
• These tables are also available each month in the Consumer Price Index Detailed Report as tables 1C, 24C and 26C.

Other explanatory materials

• A Questions and Answers page about the C-CPI-U.
• A short technical note about the C-CPI-U.
• A short methodological note (in PDF format), with formulas.
• Introducing the Chained Consumer Price Index (in PDF format), a paper by Robert Cage, John Greenlees and Patrick Jackman presented at the Seventh Meeting of the International Working Group on Price Indices, Paris, France, May 2003.

For more information on the C-CPI-U, write to:

Bureau of Labor Statistics
Division of Consumer Prices and Price Indexes
2 Massachusetts Ave. NE, Room 3130
Washington, DC 20212

Or contact Patrick Jackman or Rob Cage either by telephone at (202) 691-6952 or by electronic mail at Jackman.Patrick@bls.gov or Cage.Rob@bls.gov.