Individual Year Conversion Factor Tables
Tables for 2010 and 2011 were revised January 19, 2012, reflecting the final 2011 CPI report released by the Bureau of Labor Statistics that day.
The CPI for 2011 (in dollars of 1982-84, the base period for the current CPI), was 224.939, presented as 2.24939 on these tables, for ease of arithmetic computation.
The estimated conversion factors on these tables for years 2012 to 2022 reflect the inflation estimates early in 2011 (not yet 2012) by the OMB and CBO (with 2022 extrapolated from 2012). The conversion factors for 2012 to 2022 will be revised by mid-March 2012, after the CBO and OMB have released their inflation estimates for those years. (These tables use the average of OMB and CBO inflation estimates.)
All other tables were revised June 28, 2011. Those tables reflect final 2010 CPI data and January-February 2011 (not yet 2012) inflation estimates from the OMB and CBO. They will be revised by mid-March 2012, after the CBO and OMB have published updated inflation estimates for 2012 to 2022.
Conversion factor tables are available as Portable Document Format (pdf) files and also in Excel format, for direct use in conversion. The tables of conversion factors below cover the period 1774 to estimated 2021.
I base 2011 conversion factors on the final 2011 CPI.
Suggestion: Use 2011 final conversion factors unless 2012 estimates are essential, because early-year inflation estimates might differ significantly from actual inflation that year, as 2011 illustrates.
The early 2011 inflation estimate for 2011 was 1.6 percent, based on the average of CBO and OMB inflation estimates. This average was used to produce conversion factors for estimated 2011. Actual inflation in 2011 (CPI-U) was 3.2 percent. As noted in the Differences between early-year and final inflation estimates for recent years section, final conversion factors in recent years have differed significantly from estimated conversion factors early in the year.)
Reminder: The files for 2011 and 2010 have been revised to reflect final 2011 CPI.
The following have NOT yet been revised to reflect final 2011 CPI. They will be revised by mid-March 2012, after the OMB and CBO have published updated inflation estimates for 2012 and later.
- Conversion Factors in 2010 Dollars, Using CPI-U-X1 for 1950 to estimated 2021 (CPI-U-X1 applies the post-1982 CPI to the period 1950 to 1982), with comparisons of inflation 1950 to 1982 using both CPI-U and CPI-U-X1 measures pdf Excel
- Conversion Factors in 2010 Dollars, Using CPI-U-RS for 1947 to 2008 (CPI-U-RS is “Research Series,” with 1977 = 100, extended to 1947 by the Census Bureau), re-based here to 2010 = 1.000. Note that unlike other CPI measures, the CPI-U-RS data can be revised each year even for earlier years rather than just for the most recent year. For that reason, no estimated CPI-U-RS conversion factors are supplied for any year after 2010. pdf Excel
- Conversion Factors in 2010 Dollars, Using both CPI-U-X1 and CPI-U-RS for 1947 to estimated 2021 (this combines the previous two tables, but omits inflation comparison 1950-1982; also the CPI-U-RS conversion factors are included only through 2009, for reasons stated immediately above) pdf Excel
Original data for the CPI-U-RS are available from the Bureau of Labor Statistics
Reminder: Conversion factors for years prior to 1913 should be considered to be estimates. In addition, CPI measures have changed over time, so data for the entire period are not precisely comparable. Note that conversion factors that apply the post-1982 CPI to the period 1950 to 1982 are available above as the CPI-U-X1, in 2009 dollars.
From the main Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI page, many data are available, including a complete table of monthly CPI-U data with semi-annual and annual changes from 1913 to the present.