TRACKING CHANGES AND TRENDS IN U.S. FOOD PRICES

This dashboard shows price changes and trends (since 2010) of various food items. The dashboard also shows changes for ‘All Items’, which represents all goods and services purchased for U.S. consumption. You can see price changes for all ‘Food’ goods purchased for consumption. The two major subcategories under ‘Food’ are ‘Food at home’ and ‘Food away from home.’ This information will allow you to see how prices are changing over time for all foods, as well as specific food items like poultry.

You can select the ‘Month to Month’ tab to see how price changes for a selected item from one month to the next. Similarly, the ‘Year to Year’ tab shows how price changes from one year to the next for an item. You can also select the ‘Base Year’ tab to select any month-year since 2010 and price changes will be calculated in comparison to that base month-year. In all three tabs, results are displayed in two forms. The bottom panel shows the exact percentage change of price for the selected item category. The upper panel shows month-to-month or year-to-year trends for the selected item category. The trend in the ‘Base Year’ tab shows price change at every point in time compared to the base month-year.

HOW TO USE THE DASHBOARD

Select one (or multiple) item categories in the ‘Category’ section for customized information. You can also chose the start month-year and the end month-year in the ‘Month/Year’ section which will change the upper panel’s trend plot. Changing the month-year selections also changes the bottom panel’s calculation in the ‘Base Year’ tab.

VARIABLE DEFINITIONS

Percentage Price Change: The price percentage change formula is as follows, (New Price minus Old Price) divided by Old Price times 100.

DATA SOURCES

U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, CPI data from 2010 to current month-year (subject to CPI data release).

DASHBOARD AUTHORS

Annapurni Subramaniam, Ahmad Wahdat, Jayson Lusk