ACCRA—American Chamber of Commerce Researchers Association
Cost of Living Index (2007)
| |
Composite (100%) |
Grocery (13%) |
Housing (28%) |
Utilities (10%) |
Transportation (10%) |
Health (4%) |
Miscellaneous (35%) |
| Garden City |
93.0 |
93.0 |
90.0 |
99.2 |
93.6 |
89.1 |
93.1 |
| Dodge City |
93.0 |
86.1 |
83.5 |
121.0 |
97.3 |
91.8 |
94.2 |
| Hays |
88.2 |
87.0 |
77.4 |
91.3 |
90.7 |
86.4 |
96.0 |
| Hutchinson |
89.9 |
88.4 |
82.6 |
89.9 |
87.4 |
90.2 |
97.0 |
| Manhattan |
96.8 |
91.6 |
94.1 |
99.9 |
100.6 |
89.3 |
99.9 |
| Salina |
85.6 |
85.2 |
76.0 |
92.5 |
98.5 |
91.7 |
86.9 |
About the Index
C2ER produces the Cost of Living Index to provide a useful and reasonably accurate measure of living
cost differences among urban areas. Items on which the Index is based have been carefully chosen to
reflect the different categories of consumer expenditures. Weights assigned to relative costs are
based on government survey data on expenditure patterns for midmanagement households. All items are
priced in each place at a specified time and according to standardized specifications.
Cost of Living Index Data Interpretation
The ACCRA Cost of Living Index measures relative price levels for consumer goods and services in
participating areas. The average for all participating places, both metropolitan and
nonmetropolitan, equals 100, and each participant's index is read as a percentage of the average for
all places.
The Index does not measure inflation (price change over time). Because each
quarterly report is a separate comparison of prices at a single point in time, and because both the
number and the mix of participants may change from one quarter to the next, index data from
different quarters cannot be compared. For inflation data contact the nearest regional office of
the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.
Because the number of items priced is limited, it is not valid to treat percentage
differences between areas as exact measures. Since judgment sampling is used in this survey, no
confidence interval can be determined. Small differences should not be construed as significant, or
even as indicating correctly which area is the more expensive place to live.
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