Examining U.S. inflation across households grouped by equivalized income

The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics publishes the Consumer Price Index (CPI) as a measure of price change faced by consumers. This article builds on our previous research by examining the level of homogeneity of inflation across the income distribution, grouping households by equivalized-income quintile. We find that, from 2006 to 2023, lower income households generally faced higher inflation rates than did higher income households. This inflation gap is larger when measured with the Chained CPI, which more closely approximates a cost-of-living index. The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) calculates and publishes the Consumer Price Index (CPI) as a measure of price change faced by consumers. The CPI for All Urban Consumers (CPI-U) measures the average inflation experience of urban consumers, covering over 90 percent of the total U.S. population. However, this broad-based measure may not accurately reflect the inflation experience of an individual household or a selected group of households.