The Fixed Basket
The Fixed Basket · Archetype · National national_average

National Average

The headline citation surface. Weighted from BLS CEX 2000 single-table consumer-unit average. National headline numbers and per-stratum decomposition follow; switch to a specific state for the state-resolved version.

Annual rate
3.55%
since 2000-01
Purchasing power
$0.41
of a 2000 dollar
Rolling 12-month
2.94%
as of 2025-12
Coverage
312 mo

The Fixed Basket Index for the National Average archetype, January 2000 = 100. Download the full series: JSON · CSV.

Spendable-dollar variant

The headline counts healthcare at total cost — including the employer-paid share of the insurance premium (national-accounts-consistent). Counting only what a household pays from its own pocket, the National Average annual rate is 3.13%/yr vs 3.55%/yr standard. Same price series, healthcare re-weighted — see the methodology, or query ?basket=spendable on the API.

Per-stratum decomposition

Each contribution is the stratum's weight × its long-run rate over its coverage window. They reconcile to the headline annual rate via a chain-link & coverage residual (the index is chain-linked at composition boundaries and some strata cover only part of the window) — shown in the table footer.

Stratum Weight Long-run rate Contribution Coverage Detail
Healthcare — total premium 14.95% 5.69% +0.85 pp 312 View →
Entertainment and reading 7.52% 4.21% +0.32 pp 312 View →
Transportation — vehicles 12.80% 2.47% +0.32 pp 312 View →
Food at home 11.31% 2.72% +0.31 pp 311 View →
Shelter — rent 7.62% 3.86% +0.29 pp 312 View →
Home energy 4.92% 3.95% +0.19 pp 312 View →
Transportation — services 10.14% 1.88% +0.19 pp 312 View →
Shelter — property tax 4.26% 4.13% +0.18 pp 312 View →
Gasoline 4.83% 3.17% +0.15 pp 312 View →
Apparel 6.95% 1.99% +0.14 pp 192 View →
Shelter — maintenance & repair 3.09% 3.52% +0.11 pp 312 View →
Education 2.37% 4.42% +0.10 pp 288 View →
Healthcare — medical services 2.50% 2.90% +0.07 pp 312 View →
Other lodging 1.79% 2.53% +0.05 pp 300 View →
Postage (USPS) 0.11% 3.37% +0.00 pp 312 View →
Healthcare — prescription drugs 1.56% -3.44% -0.05 pp 146 View →
Communications 3.28% -1.76% -0.06 pp 312 View →
Contributions, summed +3.16 pp
Chain-link & coverage residual +0.39 pp
Headline annual rate 3.55%

Resolve by state

The National Average headline above uses national weights × national prices. For a state-resolved version (national weights × state-specific prices with documented per-stratum fallback), select a state below.

Methodology

The National Average archetype is one of 10 published profiles. See all archetypes for the full set, the basket page for per-archetype weight schedules, and the methodology page for the load-bearing pillars.