Key points
- Items are weighted by how much the average household spends on them.
- Housing (Shelter) is the largest component (~35% weight).
- Owners' Equivalent Rent (OER) is a key lag in the data.
Related terms
How it works
How CPI is Calculated
Each month the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) collects around 80,000 prices from about 23,000 shops and service providers, plus rent data from tens of thousands of housing units, and combines them into the Consumer Price Index.