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Bureau of Labor Statistics > Consumer Price Index > About > Notices

Recent and upcoming methodology changes

Changes to the CPI establishment frame

Starting in October 2019, the CPI Program plans to end the Telephone Point-of-Purchase Survey (TPOPS) and to obtain its retail establishment frame from the same household survey used to obtain the expenditure weights needed to calculate the index. This change to the Consumer Expenditure Surveys (CE) information will eliminate redundancies and inefficiencies in survey operations, and will result in lower household burden. The CE-Diary will be used as the source for most food and food away from home outlets, while the CE-Interview will be used for the bulk of CPI’s outlet frames. CPI plans to refine the location and address data reported in the CE by comparing the household reported data to establishments in the Quarterly Census of Employment and Wages business registry. (posted May 6, 2019)

Reduced sample rotation for select items

Beginning with February 2019 sample selections, CPI implemented an adjustment in sample rotation methodology for the electricity, utility (piped) gas service, and hospital services indexes. The sample rotation for each of these items previously followed the standard 4-year cycle, whereby every area would have the sample refreshed every 4 years. The new sample rotation for each of these items now follows an extended cycle of every 8 years, whereby all areas will have their sample selected over 4 years, then the sample will remain in effect for 4 years, before rotating again. An article describing this change and reasoning is scheduled to be released in the summer of 2019. (posted March 1, 2019)

Health insurance

With the release of September 2018 data, CPI began using new sources to calculate the retained earnings ratio used to compute the commercial insurance portion of the health insurance index. The new sources are the National Association of Insurance Commissioners (NAIC) and the California Department of Managed Health Care (DMHC). Previously, the CPI used data from A.M. Best, a private source that provides information about and data related to the insurance industry. (posted November 23, 2018)

Telecommunications services

With the release of January 2019 data, standalone and bundled packages of residential telecommunications services, which comprise the indexes for land-line telephone services, internet services and electronic information providers, and cable and satellite television service, are quality adjusted to account for the rapid technological change in these services. Additional information on this process is available at Measuring Price Change in the CPI: Telecommunications services (updated January 15, 2019)

Average prices

With April 2018 data, BLS discontinued publication of 33 average price series and introduced 5 new average price series. See tables below for details. (posted February 14, 2018)

Physicians' services

With the release of April 2018 data, CPI began using the Medical Expenditure Panel Survey produced by the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality to adjust the weights of payer types included in the physicians’ services index. The resulting index better reflects current market weights by increasing the share of payments covered by private insurance relative to payments made by uninsured people and payments covered by Medicare Part B. Additional information on this process is available at Measuring Price Change in the CPI: Medical care (updated May 10, 2018)

Smartphones

With April 2018 data, directed substitution is employed for smartphones in order to bring the CPI sample of smartphones more in line with what consumers are purchasing. Directed substitution is based on statistics on how often consumers upgrade their smartphones and takes place approximately twice a year to coincide with new hardware releases from manufacturers. (posted March 7, 2018)

With January 2018 data, smartphones, which are part of the telephone hardware, calculators, and other consumer information items index, are quality adjusted to account for the rapid rate of technological advancements and improved quality to customers. Additional information on the process is available at Measuring Price Change in the CPI: Telephone hardware, calculators, and other consumer information items. (posted January 2, 2018)

Used cars and trucks

With January 2018 data, the Consumer Price Index for used cars and trucks has changed from a three-month moving average to a single month price change. This modification will result in an index that reflects price change closer to the reference period.Additional information on the process is available at Measuring Price Change in the CPI: Used cars and trucks. (posted November 21, 2017)

Table 1. Discontinued average price series.
Item code	Item label	Last publication date
702611	Salted soda crackers	October 2000
703312	USDA round roast	July 2014
703431	USDA short ribs, bone-in	May 2011
703612	USDA sirloin steak (1)	June 2017
704321	Canned ham, pear shaped can, 3-5 lbs.	November 1992
704413	Pork shoulder picnic, bone-in	December 1997
704421	Fresh pork sausage, breakfast style, loose	September 2002
705141	Beef liver	January 2000
705142	USDA lamb and mutton, bone-in	January 1994
709111	Whole fortified milk, sold at store, per half-gallon	December 1997
709212	Low-fat milk, sold at store, per half-gallon	September 1992
709213	Low-fat milk, sold at store, per gallon	October 2002
710111	Butter, creamy, salted, grade AA, stick, sold at store	April 2012
710122	Natural yogurt, fruit flavored, sold at store, per 8 oz.	March 2003
711312	Oranges, Valencia	August 2013
712401	Cabbage	October 2012
712402	Celery, excluding celery hearts	October 2012
712403	Carrots, short trimmed or topped	March 2014
712404	Dried onions, yellow varieties	March 2014
712405	Green onions (scallions)	January 2000
712407	Corn on the cob	June 1988
712408	Radishes	June 1988
712409	Cucumbers	April 2000
712410	Green snap beans	January 2000
712411	Mushrooms	January 2000
713311	Apple sauce	December 1997
713312	Canned peaches	December 1997
714111	Frozen French fried potatoes	December 2004
714232	Canned tomatoes	December 1997
716114	Margarine, stick	May 2014
717113	Cola drinks, except diet, cans, 10-13.5 oz., 6 pack	February 1992
717327	Coffee, instant plain, regular, all sizes, per lb.	September 2003
717114	Cola, nondiet, per 2 liters	January 2000
Footnotes: (1) This series was not published October 2013 through May 2017.

Table 2. New average price series.
Item code	Item label
FN1101	All soft drinks, 2 liter
FN1102	All soft drinks, 12 ounce, 12 pack
FJ1101	Milk, low-fat, reduced fat, skim, gallon container
FJ4101	Yogurt, per 8 ounce
FS1101	Butter, in sticks, per pound