Cost of Living

average price of food clothing and housing, average cost of basic necessities

The cost of living is the cost of maintaining a certain standard of living over time. A cost-of-living index, such as the United States Consumer Price Index is a price index that conceptually measures relative cost of living. Such indexes are constructed to have a value of 100 in a given year (or period, or place), the base. Other values of the Consumer Price Index are relative to the base year. An index value of 110 indicates that the cost of living is ten percent higher than in the base year. Thus, the index provides a unit-free measure of the change in the cost of living. Cost-of-living indexes are also available that allow for substitution among items as relative prices change.
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Noun
1. average cost of basic necessities of life (as food and shelter and clothing); "a rise in the cost of living reflects the rate of inflation"
(hypernym) cost

A Cost of Living Index measures differences in the price of goods and services, and allows for substitutions to other items as prices change. A Consumer Price Index measures a price change for a constant market basket of goods and services from one period to the next within the same city (or in the Nation). The CPI is not a true cost of living index and should not be used for place to place comparisons.

Synonyms and related words:
budget, budget items, burden of expenditure, carrying charge, charges, consumer price index, cost, cost-of-living allowance, cost-of-living index, costs, direct costs, disbursals, distributed costs, expense, expense account, expenses, general expenses, indirect costs, labor costs, liabilities, material costs, operating costs, operating expense, overhead, prime cost, real wages, replacement cost, standard of comfort, standard of life, standard of living, swindle sheet, take-home, take-home pay, unit cost,