Department of Labor Logo United States Department of Labor
Dot gov

The .gov means it's official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you're on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Help & Tutorials

CPI-Average Price Data

Welcome to the step-by-step guide on how to use the CPI-Average Price Data one-screen query system

The Consumer Price Index Program produces monthly average price data for selected food and energy items. Price data are available for the U.S. City Average (or national average), for various geographic areas (regions and metropolitan areas), and for national population size classes of urban areas.

This tool lets users query the BLS databases for specific data series. For each survey and program, make a selection for each characteristic in the order listed. As you make your selection, the remaining characteristics will filter to show only choices where data are available. After choosing the series, click on “Add to selection.” If you need more data series, repeat the steps of choosing the data series you need. After you've finished finding the data series you need, click on the “Get Data” button to retrieve the data, and an HTML table with data for the most recent 10 years will display. If you desire a different time period or format, you may modify the options on the data display page, or click on the “More Formatting Options” button for additional options on refining the data retrieval results. Note: Users may not retrieve more than 200 data series in one query.

1. Select how you want to view the data

Users have the option to View items within an area, or View areas within an item. Click on the radio button next to the desired view.

2. Area Search Box

Type all or part of a search string in the search text box. The contents of the box will filter to show only those options that contain the search string.

3. Select an Area

Click on the area of interest to select it. The items available for the selected area will automatically appear in the next window.

4. Items Search Box

Type all or part of a search string in the search text box. The contents of the box will filter to show only those options that contain the search string.

5. Select one or more Items

Click on the item of interest to select it. To select multiple options, hold the Ctrl/Command button, and click the desired options.

6. Add to selection

You must make a selection for each of the characteristics in the order listed. Once you have selected all of the characteristics, the “Add to selection” button becomes active. Click the “Add to selection” button to list the selected data series in the “Your selection” box. You can return to the characteristics boxes and make new selections to request additional data series. Click the "Get Data" button to retrieve all the selected data series.

7. Get Data

You must make a selection for each of the characteristics in the order listed. Once you have selected all of the characteristics, the “Get Data” button becomes active. Click to retrieve the data.

 

Last Modified Date: February 20, 2018