JACKSON, Wyo. — The cost of living index is out and, even during a time of COVID, nearly all indicators are up…especially in Teton County.
The second quarter of 2020 Wyoming Cost of Living Index (WCLI) was released recently by the State of Wyoming, Economic Analysis Division. The WCLI consists of two parts: Inflation, which measures year-over-year change, and the Comparative Cost of Living Index, which compares each county’s cost of living in one period to the statewide average.
Inflation is reported for the state by consumer category for five regions in Wyoming. Inflation measures year-over-year price changes in six consumer categories. The inflation figures for the second quarter of 2020 represent the percent change in the price level of a standard basket of selected consumer items priced in the second quarter of 2020, compared with the price level of the same goods recorded one year ago (second quarter of 2019).
Statewide, inflation was 1.1% measured across the board. That outpaces the national inflation rate for the same period, which was 0.6%, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) in the Consumer Price Index.
Statewide inflation by consumer category:
- Food 4.9%
- Medical 3.0%
- Apparel 2.7%
- Housing 2.6%
- Recreation & Personal Care. 1.0%
- Transportation 7.3%
Regional inflation rates:
- Southeast 1.8%
- Central 1.7%
- Northwest 0.8%
- Southwest 0.2%
- Northeast 0.2%
The Comparative Cost of Living Index represents each county’s price level compared to the statewide average (100) during a single period, in this case: the second quarter of 2020. For the second quarter of 2020, the Comparative Cost of Living Index ranked Teton (159) as the county with the highest All Items value, which indicates that the cost of living in Teton County was estimated 59 percent higher than the statewide average in the quarter.
Movement in ranking from a previous survey does not indicate that the price level has increased or decreased in a particular county. Instead, these values reflect relative price levels in each county, at the time of data collection, compared with the statewide average of 100. Comparative Cost of Living Index data was also produced by the consumer category for every county.
Survey Methodology
The WCLI is produced biannually, in the second quarter and the fourth quarter. Price data are collected in 28 cities and towns in Wyoming and the data are used to build a Comparative Cost of Living Index by county and to estimate overall inflation rates for Wyoming and the five designated regions of the State.
Communities across the State are included in the WCLI based on the following criteria: First, the largest city or town in each county is priced; additionally, prices are collected in any city or town with populations greater than 5,000 or in cases of a city or town having at least 80 percent of a county’s largest community’s population. In counties where only one community was priced, those prices were used to represent the entire county. In counties where two communities were surveyed, a weighted average of the prices for the two communities was used for the entire county.
