Inflation

Consumer Price Index

The Consumer Price Index (CPI) measures price changes in goods and services purchased by urban consumers.  The all urban consumer (CPI-U) represents the spending patterns of the majority of the population which includes professionals, the self-employed, the poor, the unemployed, and retired people, as well as urban wage earners and clerical workers (CPI-W).  The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) compiles and publishes the CPI for the Los Angeles area monthly, the Riverside area bimonthly, San Diego county bimonthly, the San Francisco area bimonthly, and the nation each month.  A California CPI is calculated by the California Department of Finance as a population-weighted average of the BLS-published local area CPIs. The California CPI formula was developed by the California Department of Industrial Relations. How to use CPI data.

• Monthly (All Items): from 1965
• Monthly (by Expenditure Detail): from 2000
• Calendar Year averages: from 1950
• Fiscal Year averages: from 1950-51

National Deflators

The national Implicit Price Deflators (deflators) measure price changes in goods and services purchased by businesses, by consumers and by employers or government programs on behalf of consumers, and by governments.  Deflators are not available below the national level.

• Calendar Year averages: from 1947
• Fiscal Year averages: from 1947-48
• Quarterly: from 1947