Prices in the Los Angeles area, as measured by the Consumer Price Index for All Urban Consumers (CPI-U), declined 0.1 percent in October, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported today. (See table A.) Regional Commissioner Chris Rosenlund noted that the October decrease was influenced by recreation and shelter. (Data in this report are not seasonally adjusted. Accordingly, month-to-month changes may reflect seasonal influences.)

Over the last 12 months, the CPI-U advanced 2.4 percent. (See chart 1 and table A.) Food prices rose 3.0 percent. Energy prices declined 1.1 percent, largely the result of a decrease in the price of gasoline. The index for all items less food and energy advanced 2.7 percent over the year. (See table 1.)

  

View Chart Data

Chart 1. Over-the-year percent change in CPI-U, Los Angeles-Long Beach-Anaheim, CA, October 2020–October 2023

Month	All items	All items less food and energy
Oct 2020	0.7	1.2
Nov 2020	1.0	1.5
Dec 2020	1.5	1.5
Jan 2021	0.9	0.6
Feb 2021	1.0	0.3
Mar 2021	2.2	0.9
Apr 2021	3.6	1.9
May 2021	3.9	2.1
Jun 2021	4.0	2.3
Jul 2021	3.9	2.3
Aug 2021	4.0	2.3
Sep 2021	4.6	3.0
Oct 2021	5.4	3.4
Nov 2021	6.0	3.6
Dec 2021	6.6	4.4
Jan 2022	7.5	5.5
Feb 2022	7.4	5.9
Mar 2022	8.5	6.2
Apr 2022	7.9	5.8
May 2022	8.0	5.8
Jun 2022	8.6	6.0
Jul 2022	7.7	5.7
Aug 2022	7.6	6.2
Sep 2022	7.8	6.3
Oct 2022	7.5	6.0
Nov 2022	6.0	5.2
Dec 2022	4.9	4.5
Jan 2023	5.8	4.5
Feb 2023	5.1	4.5
Mar 2023	3.7	4.3
Apr 2023	3.8	4.5
May 2023	3.2	4.3
Jun 2023	2.5	4.0
Jul 2023	2.7	3.4
Aug 2023	3.3	3.5
Sep 2023	3.2	3.2
Oct 2023	2.4	2.7

Food prices rose 0.1 percent for the month of October. (See table 1.) Prices for food at home increased 0.1 percent, led by higher prices for nonalcoholic beverages and beverage materials (2.4 percent). Prices for food away from home increased 0.1 percent for the same period.

Over the year, food prices rose 3.0 percent. Prices for food at home increased 1.2 percent since a year ago with higher prices in four of the six grocery categories. Prices for food away from home advanced 5.6 percent.

The energy index declined 0.2 percent over the month. The decrease was mainly due to lower prices for natural gas service (-5.9 percent). Prices for gasoline declined 0.8 percent, but prices for electricity rose 2.5 percent for the same period.

Energy prices declined 1.1 percent over the year, largely due to lower prices for gasoline (-5.2 percent). Prices paid for natural gas service fell 10.7 percent, but prices for electricity rose 10.6 percent during the past year.

The index for all items less food and energy declined 0.2 percent in October. Lower prices for recreation (-1.4 percent) and shelter (-0.1 percent) were partially offset by higher prices for household furnishings and operations (0.8 percent) and medical care (0.3 percent).

Over the year, the index for all items less food and energy advanced 2.7 percent. Components contributing to the increase included other goods and services (8.6 percent) and shelter (4.4 percent). Partly offsetting the increases were price decreases in new and used motor vehicles (-4.1 percent) and medical care (-1.0 percent).

The November 2023 Consumer Price Index for the Los Angeles area is scheduled to be released on December 12, 2023.

The Consumer Price Index (CPI) is a measures of the average change in prices over time in a fixed market basket of goods and services. The Bureau of Labor Statistics publishes CPIs for two population groups: (1) a CPI for All Urban Consumers (CPI-U) which covers approximately 93 percent of the total U.S. population and (2) a CPI for Urban Wage Earners and Clerical Workers (CPI-W) which covers approximately 29 percent of the total U.S. population. The CPI-U includes, in addition to wage earners and clerical workers, groups such as professional, managerial, and technical workers, the self-employed, short-term workers, the unemployed, and retirees and others not in the labor force.

The CPI is based on prices of food, clothing, shelter, and fuels, transportation fares, charges for doctors' and dentists' services, drugs, and the other goods and services that people buy for day-to-day living. Each month, prices are collected in 75 urban areas across the country from about 6,000 housing units and approximately 22,000 retail establishments—department stores, supermarkets, hospitals, filling stations, and other types of stores and service establishments. All taxes directly associated with the purchase and use of items are included in the index.

The index measures price changes from a designated reference date; for most of the CPI-U the reference base is 1982-84 equals 100. An increase of 7 percent from the reference base, for example, is shown as 107.000.  Alternatively, that relationship can also be expressed as the price of a base period market basket of goods and services rising from $100 to $107. For further details see the CPI home page on the Internet at www.bls.gov/cpi and the CPI section of the BLS Handbook of Methods available on the internet at www.bls.gov/opub/hom/cpi/.

In calculating the index, price changes for the various items in each location are averaged together with weights that represent their importance in the spending of the appropriate population group. Local data are then combined to obtain a U.S. city average. Because the sample size of a local area is smaller, the local area index is subject to substantially more sampling and other measurement error than the national index. In addition, local indexes are not adjusted for seasonal influences. As a result, local area indexes show greater volatility than the national index, although their long-term trends are quite similar. NOTE: Area indexes do not measure differences in the level of prices between cities; they only measure the average change in prices for each area since the base period.

The Los Angeles-Long Beach-Anaheim, CA metropolitan area includes Los Angeles and Orange Counties in California.

Information in this release will be made available to sensory impaired individuals upon request. Voice phone: 202-691-5200; Telecommunications Relay Service: 7-1-1.

Table 1. Consumer Price Index for All Urban Consumers (CPI-U): Indexes and percent changes for selected periods

Los Angeles-Long Beach-Anaheim (1982-84=100 unless otherwise noted)

Item and Group	Indexes				Percent change from-
	Historical data	Aug. 2023	Sep. 2023	Oct. 2023	Oct. 2022	Aug. 2023	Sep. 2023
Expenditure category
All items		324.050	324.984	324.545	2.4	0.2	-0.1
All items (1967=100)		957.388	960.148	958.851	-	-	-
Food and beverages		330.114	329.313	329.443	2.9	-0.2	0.0
Food		331.989	330.984	331.291	3.0	-0.2	0.1
Food at home		318.410	315.910	316.111	1.2	-0.7	0.1
Cereals and bakery products		350.457	346.875	343.071	0.0	-2.1	-1.1
Meats, poultry, fish, and eggs		345.117	341.089	339.935	0.8	-1.5	-0.3
Dairy and related products		299.145	299.806	302.506	1.3	1.1	0.9
Fruits and vegetables		413.075	410.576	411.934	-0.4	-0.3	0.3
Nonalcoholic beverages and beverage materials(1)		310.546	298.268	305.398	0.1	-1.7	2.4
Other food at home		255.943	257.388	256.165	4.1	0.1	-0.5
Food away from home		341.505	343.020	343.491	5.6	0.6	0.1
Alcoholic beverages		282.904	284.829	282.636	1.9	-0.1	-0.8
Housing		368.480	369.622	369.678	4.0	0.3	0.0
Shelter		420.623	423.036	422.472	4.4	0.4	-0.1
Rent of primary residence(2)		447.648	449.268	450.233	5.3	0.6	0.2
Owners' equiv. rent of residences(2)(3)		434.944	438.614	438.676	4.4	0.9	0.0
Owners' equiv. rent of primary residence(1)(2)		434.919	438.589	438.651	4.4	0.9	0.0
Fuels and utilities		472.708	468.205	471.754	6.0	-0.2	0.8
Household energy		427.795	422.365	424.838	5.5	-0.7	0.6
Energy services(2)		426.093	420.641	423.069	5.7	-0.7	0.6
Electricity(2)		487.706	487.759	499.924	10.6	2.5	2.5
Utility (piped) gas service(2)		346.998	328.224	308.824	-10.7	-11.0	-5.9
Household furnishings and operations		131.281	129.811	130.868	-1.2	-0.3	0.8
Apparel		124.088	122.542	121.698	2.6	-1.9	-0.7
Transportation		267.894	272.567	271.497	-3.0	1.3	-0.4
Private transportation		270.235	275.207	273.484	-3.0	1.2	-0.6
New and used motor vehicles(4)		113.742	111.269	110.637	-4.1	-2.7	-0.6
New vehicles(1)		195.700	195.889	195.097	-0.4	-0.3	-0.4
Used cars and trucks(1)		380.049	357.766	353.266	-6.8	-7.0	-1.3
Motor fuel		397.083	436.617	433.139	-5.1	9.1	-0.8
Gasoline (all types)		386.936	425.469	422.091	-5.2	9.1	-0.8
Gasoline, unleaded regular(4)		387.990	426.939	423.608	-5.2	9.2	-0.8
Gasoline, unleaded midgrade(4)(5)		369.541	406.137	402.734	-5.2	9.0	-0.8
Gasoline, unleaded premium(4)		369.611	405.244	401.812	-5.1	8.7	-0.8
Medical care		556.071	546.371	547.973	-1.0	-1.5	0.3
Recreation(6)		125.820	125.424	123.666	2.2	-1.7	-1.4
Education and communication(6)		158.154	159.041	157.885	1.5	-0.2	-0.7
Tuition, other school fees, and child care(1)		2,269.579	2,296.557	2,278.167	4.3	0.4	-0.8
Other goods and services		529.462	529.771	532.773	8.6	0.6	0.6
Commodity and service group
All items		324.050	324.984	324.545	2.4	0.2	-0.1
Commodities		220.389	221.330	220.602	-0.6	0.1	-0.3
Commodities less food & beverages		164.318	165.690	164.777	-3.4	0.3	-0.6
Nondurables less food & beverages		232.980	239.225	237.965	-2.4	2.1	-0.5
Durables		102.864	101.943	101.358	-2.9	-1.5	-0.6
Services		415.619	416.501	416.382	3.9	0.2	0.0
Special aggregate indexes
All items less medical care		313.783	315.140	314.621	2.6	0.3	-0.2
All items less shelter		281.314	281.581	281.198	1.1	0.0	-0.1
Commodities less food		169.614	171.020	170.065	-3.2	0.3	-0.6
Nondurables		283.339	286.318	285.702	0.8	0.8	-0.2
Nondurables less food		239.099	245.165	243.832	-2.1	2.0	-0.5
Services less rent of shelter(3)		419.790	418.168	418.816	3.2	-0.2	0.2
Services less medical care services		401.922	403.123	402.957	4.4	0.3	0.0
Energy		411.315	432.517	431.472	-1.1	4.9	-0.2
All items less energy		321.018	320.825	320.417	2.7	-0.2	-0.1
All items less food and energy		319.163	319.091	318.577	2.7	-0.2	-0.2
Footnotes (1) Indexes on a December 1977=100 base. (2) This index series was calculated using a Laspeyres estimator. All other item stratum index series were calculated using a geometric means estimator. (3) Indexes on a December 1982=100 base. (4) Special index based on a substantially smaller sample. (5) Indexes on a December 1993=100 base. (6) Indexes on a December 1997=100 base.
- Data not available NOTE: Index applies to a month as a whole, not to any specific date.