Urban Alaska inflation calculator: CPI-U since 1960

Urban Alaska, not only Anchorage

Since its 2018 area revision, the BLS publishes 23 local indexes: 21 for areas of more than 2.5 million people, plus Anchorage and Honolulu. Anchorage stands for all core-based statistical areas in Alaska, so the index is published as Urban Alaska. Rural nonmetropolitan areas are outside the CPI-U population altogether. For them no CPI exists; the West region or this index are the nearest substitutes.

Shelter up, groceries down

Shelter in Urban Alaska rose 4.9 % over the 12 months to September 2026, faster than the 3.2 % national rate and the highest of the 23 local indexes. Food at home moved -0.9 %, against +1.8 % nationally, the lowest of the 23 local indexes. Both group series reach September 2026, while the all-items index stops at August 2026: the BLS prices food at home every month in every area.

Recreation was +8.5 %, other goods and services +5.1 %, medical care -1.3 % and transportation +6.2 %. Core prices, which exclude food and energy, were +2.3 %. Most of these group series start in 2017, and their small sample makes them jumpy.

October 2025 and the two releases after it

October is an Urban Alaska month, and October 2025 is missing: no prices were collected during the lapse in appropriations. December 2025 was published at 272.355, against 273.815 in August 2025, but with no two-month change. The next index, for October 2026, is due on November 10, 2026. Because its year-earlier month does not exist, the BLS will publish it without a 12-month change. An October 2025 date in the calculator uses August 2025, with a note.

Record years, and a long stretch without monthly data

The highest Urban Alaska annual rate is 13.7 %, in 1975; the lowest is -1.1 %, in 2020. In 2020 the annual average moved -1.1 %, while the West posted 1.7 %. The series also has a long stretch without monthly figures: the BLS published no monthly Urban Alaska index between December 1986 and December 2017. Annual averages cover those years, so the records include them, and a month inside the span uses the annual average of its year, with a note.

Alaska next to Seattle and the West

From the 2018 annual average to August 2026, Urban Alaska prices rose 25.4 %, less than the 34.9 % of the West region. Seattle, also priced in even months, was at 4.4 % over its latest 12 months, against 3.3 % for Urban Alaska.