March 2, 2012 (The Editor’s Desk is updated each business day.)

Consumer Price Index for the elderly

Relative importance of expenditure categories in Consumer Price Indexes for three population groups, December 2011
Expenditure group	Percent of total expenditures
Expenditure group	Consumer Price Index for All Urban Consumers (CPI-U)	Consumer Price Index for Urban Wage Earners and Clerical Workers (CPI-W)	Experimental Consumer Price Index for the Elderly (CPI-E)
Total	100.0%	100.0%	100.0%
Housing	40.2	39.2	44.5
Transportation	16.5	18.7	14.5
Food and beverages	15.0	15.7	12.8
Medical care	6.9	5.6	11.3
Recreation	5.9	5.5	5.3
Education and communication	6.7	6.7	3.8
Apparel	3.5	3.6	2.4
Other goods and services	5.3	5.1	5.4

These data are featured in the TED article, Consumer Price Index for the elderly.

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