Education Cost Index (CPI) — methodology

What this metric measures

ABS Consumer Price Index for education - preschool, primary, secondary and tertiary education costs paid by households. Published as an index number (the ABS CPI reference period = 100).

Why it matters: Education costs are a major household expense over a family's lifetime, and rising fees influence enrolment decisions and debt levels.

Source & provenance

Publisher

ABS Consumer Price Index (Cat. 6401.0) - Education sub-index, quarterly (national)

Update frequency

quarterly

Licence

CC BY 4.0

How the score is computed

The score is a 0–100 normalisation of the latest observation, compared to a baseline window. The traffic-light rating (RAG) reflects both the absolute level and the recent trend.

Direction

Lower is better

Trend window

24 months

Baseline

Last 10 years

{
  "red_min_pct_of_baseline": 110,
  "amber_max_pct_of_baseline": 110,
  "green_max_pct_of_baseline": 95
}