docs/us_economy/economy_food_cpi_region_year

economy_food_cpi_region_year

National + region grain. BLS CPI-U food component annual averages (1982-84=100, NSA). Covers food, food-at-home, food-away-from-home, and grocery sub-groups at U.S. City Average and 4 census regions. Measures food price CHANGE over time — not a price level. National/region only, no county.

tier aTier A: official BLS survey. Regional aggregation; not county-level.economyfoodpricesinflationcost-of-living
grain
area_code-item_code-year
years
1997 – 2025
cadence
Annual
overview

overview

760 region-year rows. BLS CPI-U Food category annual averages by census region.

current vintage — 2025

history — Yes — 1997–2025

provenance

source & licensing

authority
U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics
dataset
BLS Consumer Price Index — Food (CPI-U Food) by Region
license
Public domain (U.S. Federal Government work)
citation
U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (2025). Consumer Price Index — Food.
schema

fields

nametypedefinition
_ingested_attimestampTimestamp when this record was written to BigQuery.Pipeline metadata field.
_ingestor_versionstringVersion of the ingestor script that produced this record.Pipeline metadata field.
_reliability_tierstringData quality tier (A/B/C) assigned at ingestion.Pipeline metadata field.
_source_dataset_idstringInternal dataset identifier linking to meta.datasets.Pipeline metadata field.
area_codekeystringBLS-assigned code identifying the geographic area (e.g., '0000' for U.S. City Average or a census region code). Used as part of the primary key to join with BLS series metadata.Part of primary key.
area_namestringHuman-readable label for the geographic area (e.g., 'U.S. City Average', 'Northeast', 'South'). Corresponds to the area_code identifier.
area_typestringCategory of geographic coverage for the area code, such as 'National' or 'Region'. Distinguishes the U.S. City Average from the four census regions.
country_idstringISO alpha-2 country code (always 'US' for domestic tables).
index_valuefloat64 · index (1982-84=100)Annual average CPI-U index value for the food category in the given area and year, not seasonally adjusted. Measures food price change over time relative to the 1982–84 base period; higher values indicate prices have risen more relative to that baseline.
item_codekeystringBLS-assigned code identifying the food expenditure category (e.g., food, food-at-home, food-away-from-home, or a grocery sub-group). Used as part of the primary key.Part of primary key.
item_namestringHuman-readable label for the food category corresponding to item_code (e.g., 'Food', 'Cereals and bakery products'). Describes what consumer spending basket is being indexed.
population_groupstringConsumer population the index covers (e.g., 'All Urban Consumers' for CPI-U). Indicates the household universe from which expenditure weights are derived.
seasonalstringSeasonal adjustment status of the series, typically 'U' (not seasonally adjusted) for this table. All rows in this table are expected to be NSA (not seasonally adjusted) annual averages.
yearkeyint64Reference year of the observation.Part of primary key.
relationships

joins

primary key
area_code, item_code, year
common joins
economy_food_avgprice_region_year on (region, year)
usage

how to use this table

method

Annual average of monthly BLS CPI-U Food series by census region.

do not use for

County-level food price comparison — BLS regions are broad geographic aggregates.

last updated · Jul 7, 2026