ABOUT THE DASHBOARD

This dashboard provides the average cost of a cheeseburger by U.S. state over time across different categories. It also provides the cost for each item of the cheeseburger by U.S. state over time and ranks prices by state.  The total cheeseburger cost is based on 2 oz (approximately one bun) of bread, 1 oz (about 28.35 g), lettuce, 1 oz (about 28.35 g) of onion, 2 oz (about 56.7 g) of tomato, 1 oz (approximately one slice) of cheese across categories: Fresh Beef; Frozen Beef; Grass-Fed Beef; Organic Beef; and Plant-based protein. The data is available starting August 1st, 2022.  

HOW TO USE IT

The user selects the date range and category to explore the average cost for each item of the cheeseburger and the whole cheeseburger price. The cost of the burger is displayed state by state on the U.S. map. The user can hover over the map to explore the prices by state. The cheeseburger price ranking by each state is available as a table. The user can see the ranking by state from the highest price to the lowest price. The bottom visual displays the prices for the date range selected by the user. On selecting a single state on the map, the selected state is highlighted on the map with the average cost displayed. The ranking table shows the price for the selected state and the figure at the bottom displays the trends in cheeseburger prices over time for the state selected. The variation in prices for the distinct categories is available on the cheeseburger graphic by clicking on the category below the date choice.

VARIABLE DEFINITIONS

Date: Data available from 08/01/2022. 

Categories: Fresh Beef, Frozen Beef, Grass-Fed Beef, Organic Beef, Plant-based protein. 

Cheeseburger components: 2 oz. Bread, 1 oz. Lettuce, 1 oz. Onion, 2 oz. Tomato, 1 oz. Cheese, ¼ lb. Fresh Beef, ¼ lb. Frozen Beef, ¼ lb. Grass-fed Beef, ¼ lb. Organic Beef, ¼ lb. Plant-based protein. 

Average cost: Average prices of each component and the whole cheeseburger are displayed for the selected state. The national average cost of the cheeseburger is displayed for the selected date range and meat category when no state is selected on the map. 

Cost of a burger by state: Cost is calculated with the cheeseburger components by state for the selected date range and meat category. 

Price ranking by state: From highest price to lowest price by state for the selected date range and meat category. 

Price by time and state: Cost is calculated for the selected time and state for selected date range and meat category. The national average cost of a burger is displayed when no state is selected. 

SOURCES

Center for Food Demand Analysis & Sustainability (CFDAS) at Purdue University, and Department of Agricultural Economics at Purdue University

DATA SOURCES

Web scraping via CFDAS and Octoparse; Bread price from U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, CPI data for current year.

DASHBOARD AUTHORS

Jinho Jung, Annapurni Subramaniam and Jayson Lusk