Reviewed by Somer Anderson The Consumer Price Index (CPI) is the most widely used metric for consumer inflation changes over time and utilizes data based on consumer buying habits from a broad sample ...

SSA bases its annual adjustment on the CPI. Additionally, anyone can use the index to calculate buying power by adjusting historical values to see how they stack up in today’s dollars.

The CPI uses the average price changes for an established basket of goods and services to demonstrate price trends within the economy. An increase in the value of the index offers a quantitative ...