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Facilities for Sensory Impaired <br />Information from this release will be made available to sensory impaired individuals upon request. <br />Voice phone:202-691-5200,Federal Relay Services:1-800-877-8339. <br />Brief Explanation of the CPI <br />The Consumer Price Index (CPI)is a measure of the average change in prices over time of goods and <br />services purchased by households.The Bureau of Labor Statistics publishes CPIs for two population <br />groups:(1)the CPI for Urban Wage Earners and Clerical Workers (CPI-W),which covers households of <br />wage earners and clerical workers that comprise approximately 28 percent of the total population and (2) <br />the CPI for All Urban Consumers (CPI-U)and the Chained CPI for All Urban Consumers (C-CPI-U), <br />which covers approximately 89 percent of the total population and includes,in addition to wage earners <br />and clerical worker households,groups such as professional,managerial,and technical workers,the self- <br />employed,short-term workers,the unemployed,and retirees and others not in the labor force. <br />The CPIs are based on prices of food,clothing,shelter,fuels,transportation fares,charges for doctors' <br />and dentists'services,drugs,and other goods and services that people buy for day-to-day living.Prices <br />are collected each month in 87 urban areas across the country from about 6,000 housing units and <br />approximately 24,000 retail establishments-department stores,supermarkets,hospitals,filling stations, <br />and other types of stores and service establishments.All taxes directly associated with the purchase and <br />use of items are included in the index.Prices of fuels and a few other items are obtained every month in <br />all 87 locations.Prices of most other commodities and services are collected every month in the three <br />largest geographic areas and every other month in other areas.Prices of most goods and services are <br />obtained by personal visits or telephone calls of the Bureau's trained representatives. <br />In calculating the index,price changes for the various items in each location are averaged together with <br />weights,which represent their importance in the spending of the appropriate population group.Local <br />data are then combined to obtain a U.S.city average.For the CPI-U and CPI-W separate indexes are <br />also published by size of city,by region of the country,for cross-classifications of regions and <br />population-size classes,and for 27 local areas.Area indexes do not measure differences in the level of <br />prices among cities;they only measure the average change in prices for each area since the base period. <br />For the C-CPI-U data are issued only at the national level.It is important to note that the CPI-U and <br />CPI-W are considered final when released,but the C-CPI-U is issued in preliminary form and subject to <br />two annual revisions. <br />The index measures price change from a designed reference date.For the CPI-U and the CPI-W the <br />reference base is 1982-84 equals 100.The reference base for the C-CPI-U is December 1999 equals 100. <br />An increase of 16.5 percent from the reference base,for example,is shown as 116.500.This change can <br />also be expressed in dollars as follows:the price of a base period market basket of goods and services in <br />the CPI has risen from $10 in 1982-84 to $11.65. <br />For further details visit the CPI home page on the Internet at www.bls.gov/cpi/or contact our CPI <br />Information and Analysis Section on (202)691-7000. <br />-5 -