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Piece
Historic Retail Prices Index: 1947 to 2004 dataset
Catalogue reference: RG 77/3
What’s it about?
This record is about the Historic Retail Prices Index: 1947 to 2004 dataset dating from 1914-2004 in the series Office for National Statistics: Retail Prices Index (RPI) and Consumer Prices Index.... It is held at The National Archives, Kew.
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Full description and record details
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Reference (The unique identifier to the record described, used to order and refer to it)
- RG 77/3
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Title (The name of the record)
- Historic Retail Prices Index: 1947 to 2004 dataset
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Date (When the record was created)
- 1914-2004
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Description (What the record is about)
- This dataset comprises an analysis of trends in inflation as measured by the Retail Prices Index (RPI) since 1947. This distinguishes it from the previous datasets in this series, which are snapshots of the RPI and the Consumer Prices Index (CPI). The RPI covers expenditure on the full range of consumer goods and services purchased by the majority of households in the United Kingdom, from the basics such as food, clothing and housing, through to leisure goods and services. The dataset contains an analysis of increases and decreases in household expenditure over time. For example, at the start of the period, food (and catering) represented the largest single category of expenditure, accounting for 35-40 per cent of the overall total. The RPI measures the full range of household expenditure, but it does not price everything that households spend their money on. Instead, a representative set of items is chosen, for which prices are tracked on a month by month basis. In 1947, there were around 200 of these representative items in the RPI basket of goods and services. Nowadays (ie 2006), there are over 650; the increased number reflects the growing complexity of the retail market and range of goods and services available, and improvements in the representativity of the items included in the basket. In 1947, the basket included many items which are not present in today's basket. The changes that have occurred reflect increasing affluence, evolving technology and changing tastes. Increasing prosperity and leisure time is also apparent with the increasing number of items in the household services, leisure goods and leisure services groups. Until 1962, the content of the RPI basket was generally held constant between rebasings but since then it has been updated in most years to reflect changing tastes in expenditure and to ensure adequate representation of each expenditure category. While the majority of the data is in the date range 1947-2004, the dataset contains one table of average prices of a range of foodstuffs and selected consumer goods from 1914 onwards. Unlike the remaining data, which contains averages arranged on a monthly basis, this table only contains annual figures. The tables were downloaded from the website of the Office for National Statistics website in the form of eight Microsoft Excel spreadsheets. From these files 42 tables were derived.
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Held by (Who holds the record)
- The National Archives, Kew
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Former reference (Former reference given to the record)
- CRDA/61/DS/3
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Legal status (A note as to whether the record being described is a Public Record or not)
- Public Record(s)
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Access conditions (Information on conditions that restrict or affect access to the record)
- Open on Transfer
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Closure status (Whether the record is ‘open’ (available to the public) or ‘closed’ (not available due to a legal exemption))
- Open Document, Open Description
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Subjects (Categories and themes found in our collection (our subject list is under development, and some records may have no subjects or fewer than expected))
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Record URL
- https://beta.nationalarchives.gov.uk/catalogue/id/C11521377/
Series information
RG 77
Office for National Statistics: Retail Prices Index (RPI) and Consumer Prices Index...
See the series level description for more information about this record.
Catalogue hierarchy
Over 27 million records
This record is held at The National Archives, Kew
206,531 records
Within the department: RG
Records of the General Register Office, Government Social Survey Department, and...
5 records
Within the series: RG 77
Office for National Statistics: Retail Prices Index (RPI) and Consumer Prices Index...
You are currently looking at the piece: RG 77/3
Historic Retail Prices Index: 1947 to 2004 dataset
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