Inflation is on consumers' minds with the recent annual Consumer Price Index (CPI) reading at 8.5%. 

The Official Data Foundation has an inflation calculator for over 100 product and service categories. 

Here's four activity ideas: 

1. Compare two products and see how their rate of price inflation has changed over time. Provide the two categories/services and let the students guess which one has had the sharper price increase over a given period of time. Which do you think has seen faster price growth since the year 2000: College Tuition or Televisions? 

Answer: 

• College Tuition: 176% increase compared to 2000
• Televisions: 98% decrease since 2000

Questions: What might explain rates of inflation in a given product category? Some ideas: level of competition, rate of technological change, supply/demand dynamics, manufacturing cost improvements, customer preferences. You might have students do some quick research to find explanations for growth in college tuition prices and declines in TV prices.

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2. Want to go in deeper and see the pricing trends on a particular product or service? By clicking on the product/service, you can also create bar charts that shows price changes over time. Here's an example of College tuition and fees: 

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3. How much have teen-related products changed in price since 2020? or since the year they were born?  What products seem to have risen most in price? depreciated in price? 

Here are a few teen-centric products that you might have your students research from the CPI-based categories.

You can also have them create their own list of 10-15 items that are in their lives. Here's a spreadsheet to complete for this activity and links to a few product categories:

• Admission to movies, theaters and concerts
• Apples
• Bananas 
• Carbonated drinks
• Cookies
• Electricity
• Fresh Fruits and Vegetables
• Housing
• New Cars
• Pet Food

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4. Ask your parent or guardian to recall how much a certain item cost in their teens and see how much prices have increased since. For example, the cost of tuition in my last year of college was about $7,000. The calculator allows you to see how much that item that cost $7,000 would cost today. It also shows how the inflation for that item compares to overall inflation.

Here's the answer: 

Wondering what other inflation resources NGPF has? Here's what the NGPF Search Tool found.  

About the Author

Tim Ranzetta

Tim's saving habits started at seven when a neighbor with a broken hip gave him a dog walking job. Her recovery, which took almost a year, resulted in Tim getting to know the bank tellers quite well (and accumulating a savings account balance of over $300!). His recent entrepreneurial adventures have included driving a shredding truck, analyzing executive compensation packages for Fortune 500 companies and helping families make better college financing decisions. After volunteering in 2010 to create and teach a personal finance program at Eastside College Prep in East Palo Alto, Tim saw firsthand the impact of an engaging and activity-based curriculum, which inspired him to start a new non-profit, Next Gen Personal Finance.

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