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Consumer Price Index Minneapolis-St. Paul, MN-WI CPI Page 2 of 4 Technical Note The Consumer Price Index (CPI) is a measure 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: (t) a CPI for All Urban Consumers (CPI-U) which covers approximately 87 percent of the total population and (z) a CPI for Urban Wage Earners and Clerical Workers (CPI-W) which covers 3z percent of the total 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 87 urban areas across the country from about 4,00o housing units and approximately zs,ooo 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 (t98z-84) that equals too.o. An increase of tbs percent, for example, is shown as tt6.5. This change can also be expressed in dollars as follows: the price of a base period "market basket" of goods and services in the CPI has risen from $to in 1982-84 to $n.bs. For further details see the CPI home page on the Internet at www.bls eov/coi and the BLS Handbook of Methods, Chapter r7, The Consumer Price Index, available on the Internet at www bls gpyfonub/hom/homeht~ a.htm. 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 Minneapolis-St. Paul, Minn.-Wis. metropolitan are covered in this release is comprised of Anoka, Carver, Chisago, Dakota, Hennepin, Isanti, Ramsey, Scott, Sherburne, Washington, and Wright Counties and Pierce and St. Croix Counties in Wisconsin. Information in this release will be made available to sensory impaired individuals upon request. Voice phone: 2oz-69r -5200; TDD message referral phone number: t-Boo-8'7'7-8339• For personal assistance or further information on Consumer Price Indexes, as well as other Bureau products, contact the Chicago Information Office at (3tz) 353-t88o from S:oo a.m. to 4:0o p.m. CT. Table 1. Consumer Price Index for All Urban Consumers (CPI-U): Indexers for semiannual averages and percent changes for selected periods Minneapolis-St. Paul, MN-VYI (1982-84=100 unless otherwise noted) Item and Group Expenditure category All Items All items (1967=100) Food and beverages Food Food at home Percent change to Semiannual average indexes 1st half 2010 from- lsthalf 2nd half 1st half 1st half ', 2nd half 2009 2009 2010 2009 2009 206.167 209.611. 210.965 2.3~'. 0.6, 647.885'. 658.707 662.9641 - - 238.051 '. 237.540' 239.711 0.7' 0.9 233.8491 232.171 233.540 -0.1 0.6 226.452 221.282 223.487 -1.3 1.0 http://data.bls.gov/cgi-bin/print.pl/ro5/cpimpls.htm 8/ 13/2010