Corrections
Corrections & changes
Data integrity is the whole point. Every change to the basket, the weights, or a BLS series mapping is logged
here with a date — newest first. Spot something wrong? Email
corrections@basketreport.com and it'll be fixed and logged.
Correction policy
Corrections are for factual errors in Basket Report's data mapping, calculations, methodology descriptions,
citations, or page copy. If BLS revises an observation, the pipeline ingests the revised value and the
downstream pages rebuild from that source value; if our own code or configuration caused a wrong display, the
fix is logged here with the date and scope.
We do not create item-level observations, smooth volatile series, or replace official values with estimates.
A missing item observation stays null. Under Methodology v2, the national fixed-basket calculation may reuse the
latest previously published BLS price, with the item and original month disclosed beside the derived basket figure.
Fixed-basket carry-forward policy added for unpublished monthly items
2026-08-01 · Methodology v2
- The national headline basket now carries forward an item’s most recent published BLS price when that item is unavailable for the current month. The source price is unchanged and retains its original observation month.
- Every affected headline figure and basket download identifies the carried item, source month, target month, and BLS series. Individual item histories still show the unpublished month as missing; no item-level observation is created.
- June 2026 now uses the May 2026 pork-chop observation in the fixed 24-item basket instead of presenting a 23-item subtotal as the 24-item index.
Initial basket validated; five BLS series IDs corrected
2026-06-21 · Methodology v1
- Catalog-verified every BLS series ID before launch. Five candidate IDs returned data but for the wrong item and were corrected: ham and pork chops were swapped; cheese pointed at processed cheese (moved to natural cheddar, APU0000710212).
- Apples (Red Delicious) and margarine were discontinued by BLS in the average-price program. They were replaced with Lemons (APU0000711412) and Potato chips (APU0000718311) to keep a 24-item basket. Fixed quantities set at this time.
- Geographic scope set to national + the four census regions, after confirming BLS does not publish grocery average prices for individual metros.
Source: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, CPI Average Price Data. Retrieved August 1, 2026 via the BLS Public Data API.
BLS.gov cannot vouch for the data or analyses derived from these data after the data have been retrieved from BLS.gov.