economy_cpi_metro_year
BLS area x year grain. CPI-U annual average (period M13), not seasonally adjusted, by BLS area code and year. Covers U.S. city average, 4 census regions, 9 census divisions, city-size classes, and ~27 named metros (1997-2025). Pivoted wide: one column per major CPI category. Index base 1982-84=100. Measures price change over time within an area — NOT a cross-area price-level comparison (use BEA RPP for that).
tier aTier A: official BLS survey. Metro coverage is limited (~25 metros); most counties map to the national average.
overview
overview
~1,100 metro-year rows. BLS CPI-U annual averages for metropolitan statistical areas.
current vintage — 2025
history — Yes — 1997–2025 (metro coverage expands over time)
provenance
source & licensing
authority
U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics
dataset
BLS Consumer Price Index — All Urban Consumers (CPI-U) by Metro Area
source url
license
Public domain (U.S. Federal Government work)
citation
U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (2025). Consumer Price Index — Urban Consumers (CPI-U), Metropolitan Area Indexes.
schema
fields
| name | type | definition |
|---|---|---|
| _ingested_at | timestamp | Timestamp when this record was written to BigQuery.Pipeline metadata field. |
| _ingestor_version | string | Version of the ingestor script that produced this record.Pipeline metadata field. |
| _reliability_tier | string | Data quality tier (A/B/C) assigned at ingestion.Pipeline metadata field. |
| _source_dataset_id | string | Internal dataset identifier linking to meta.datasets.Pipeline metadata field. |
| area_codekey | string | BLS area code (e.g. S12A = New York metro, 0000 = U.S. city average). |
| area_name | string | Human-readable area name extracted from BLS series title. |
| country_id | string | ISO alpha-2 country code. Always US. |
| index_all_items | float64 | CPI-U all items annual average index (base 1982-84=100). |
| index_apparel | float64 | CPI-U apparel annual average index. |
| index_core | float64 | CPI-U all items less food and energy (core CPI), annual average index. |
| index_education | float64 | CPI-U education and communication annual average index. |
| index_energy | float64 | CPI-U energy major group annual average index. |
| index_food | float64 | CPI-U food major group annual average index. |
| index_housing | float64 | CPI-U housing major group annual average index. |
| index_medical | float64 | CPI-U medical care annual average index. |
| index_other | float64 | CPI-U other goods and services annual average index. |
| index_recreation | float64 | CPI-U recreation annual average index. |
| index_shelter | float64 | CPI-U shelter annual average index. |
| index_transportation | float64 | CPI-U transportation annual average index. |
| yearkey | int64 | Reference year for the annual average index. |
relationships
joins
primary key
area_code, year
common joins
economy_food_cpi_region_year on (year) for food-specific inflation
usage
how to use this table
method
Annual average of monthly BLS CPI-U series by metro area. Base period: 1982-84=100.
do not use for
County-level inflation comparison — BLS metro areas do not cover all counties.
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last updated · Jul 7, 2026