The details of how BLS assembles the CPI basket covers a lot of your questions: https://www.bls.gov/cpi/questions-and-answers.htm#Question_2 https://www.bls.gov

The details of how BLS assembles the CPI basket covers a lot of your questions: https://www.bls.gov/cpi/questions-and-answers.htm#Question_2 https://www.bls.gov/cpi/questions-and-answers.htm#Question_2 Most people don’t realize that the basket content comes from what real people actually buy, and that’s tracked over 4 years. It is adjusted for item quantity and in a pretty sophisticated way. That said, it’s not a cost-of-living index, in that it’s not trying to measure the amount of money required to meet a given living standard (https://www.bls.gov/cpi/questions-and-answers.htm#Question_9 https://www.bls.gov/cpi/questions-and-answers.htm#Question_9), so if the same item degrades in quality (but the quantity doesn’t change), that generally won’t be captured. I think the answer to your headline question is no, but realize that it’s measuring consumer price inflation — things a typical consumer buys in a 2 week period. (The next logical question is “What about housing?” - yes, but in the form of shelter, which isn’t the same as housing prices: https://www.bls.gov/cpi/factsheets/owners-equivalent-rent-and-rent.pdf https://www.bls.gov/cpi/factsheets/owners-equivalent-rent-an...)