The Retail Price Index (RPI) was created to be a compensation index to measure the cost of living for workers during First World War. Over the years economic historians have extended it back to the thirteenth century.

The Consumer Price Index (CPI) was first calculated for the UK in 1996 to create a measure of inflation that used the methodologies that are consistent with the other countries.

The RPI is used here to have a long-term consistent series.

Please read our Note on Data Revisions.

Samuel Williamson, "The Difference between Retail Price Index and the Consumer Price Index" MeasuringWorth, .
URL: http://www.measuringworth.com/ukearncpi//