Glossary
apparel consumer price index
Apparel consumer price index series track clothing and footwear prices over time as seen by consumers. The reference U.S. series is BLS's seasonally adjusted city-average index CUSR0000SAA, monthly from January 1947 on a 1982-84=100 base, with footwear counterpart CUSR0000SEAA and HICP clothing prices covering Europe.
What is an apparel consumer price index?
These are the index series inside national statistics that isolate apparel. In the U.S. setup the cataloged identifiers are precise: CUSR0000SAA is the seasonally adjusted U.S. city-average CPI for apparel, published monthly from January 1947 on a 1982-84=100 base period, and CUSR0000SEAA is its footwear counterpart. Both series IDs are retrievable through the BLS Public Data API.
European comparisons come from harmonized sources rather than national CPIs: Eurostat's data browser carries HICP clothing prices alongside PRODCOM and COMEXT trade data, and OECD.Stat publishes harmonized CPI series for clothing and footwear across countries. The catalog tags this cluster with cpi, inflation and price-index.
Series-level CPI data is one of the cheapest high-quality inputs in the catalog - government statistical sources dominate the 781 public-dataset records (44.8% of 1,744) that Datadory tracks.
Why does apparel consumer price index matter when choosing a dataset?
Index selection changes the story a chart tells. Seasonally adjusted and unadjusted apparel CPI diverge every holiday quarter; picking the wrong one manufactures volatility or hides it.
- Comparability fails silently across borders. Splicing a national CPI onto HICP clothing prices mixes methodologies; the harmonized OECD.Stat series exists precisely to prevent that.
- Base periods matter for long histories. A series expressed on a 1982-84=100 base must be rebased before joining to newer indices or growth rates will be wrong.
- Footwear is a separate series, not a footnote. Treating CUSR0000SEAA as interchangeable with the apparel index distorts any basket where shoes weigh heavily.
How do you evaluate apparel consumer price index in a data source?
Use these checks to test whether a source delivers what the concept promises:
- Record the exact series ID. CUSR0000SAA (apparel) and CUSR0000SEAA (footwear) are the unambiguous handles; a vendor citing 'US apparel CPI' should be able to name theirs.
- Confirm seasonal adjustment and base period. Seasonally adjusted, U.S. city average, 1982-84=100 - each property changes the numbers.
- Check the history depth you are paying for. The cataloged series reaches back to January 1947, monthly; shorter deliveries are a packaging choice, not a data limitation.
- Use harmonized series for Europe. Eurostat's HICP clothing prices and OECD.Stat's harmonized CPI keep cross-country comparisons on one methodology.
- Verify the retrieval route. Both U.S. series IDs resolve through the BLS Public Data API, so programmatic access can be tested before contracting.
Where to see it in context: apparel-accessories-luxury-goods data.
Related terms
Series and standards that surround apparel price measurement:
Frequently asked questions
What is the main U.S. apparel consumer price index series?
BLS series CUSR0000SAA, the seasonally adjusted U.S. city-average CPI for apparel, published monthly from January 1947 on a 1982-84=100 base. Footwear has its own series, CUSR0000SEAA.
Where can I get comparable clothing inflation for Europe?
Use harmonized sources: HICP clothing prices in the Eurostat data browser and the harmonized CPI series for clothing and footwear in OECD.Stat, rather than mixing national CPIs.
Can I pull apparel CPI series programmatically?
Yes. The BLS Public Data API serves both cataloged series IDs, CUSR0000SAA and CUSR0000SEAA, so the series can be validated before any commercial commitment.
Datasets containing this field
Datasets containing apparel consumer price index
6 datasets carry apparel consumer price index in the catalog. Open one, count the fields, judge for yourself.
DeepFashion Dataset (CUHK MMLab)
World Bank DataBank & API — World Development Indicators
indicator.id · indicator.value · country.id …+7 more
Fashion Product Images Small — Hugging Face (ashraq)
gender · masterCategory · subCategory …+4 more
Apparel Images Dataset — Kaggle (trolukovich)
black_pants · red_dress · white_shorts
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