Denver inflation calculator: CPI-U since 1964

The Denver calendar

The BLS prices Denver every other month, in odd months, which is why the latest Denver figure is for September 2026 and nothing exists for August 2026. The next all-items index is for November 2026, released on December 10, 2026. If you type an even month into the calculator, it takes the Denver index of the month before and prints a note under the result.

The odd-month schedule turned out to be a shield in 2025. During the lapse in appropriations the BLS collected no prices, and every October 2025 index is missing. October was not a Denver month, so Denver lost nothing: November 2025 was priced as planned and the 2025 annual average uses its normal six indexes. The October 2025 page explains what happened to the areas that were not so lucky.

Core prices ahead of the nation

Denver core inflation, at +3.6 %, sits above the national +2.6 %. Core leaves out food and energy, so it shows how services and goods other than fuel and groceries are moving. Shelter does not explain it: Denver shelter ran slower than the national index (+2.4 % against +3.2 %). Transportation was +9.0 %, education and communication +3.8 %, and medical care +3.0 %.

Most Denver group series begin only in 2017, while recreation and education go back to 1997. A comparison by spending group over a long stretch is therefore not possible for Denver, even though the all-items index runs back to 1964.

Denver and the West, year by year

Annual inflation in Denver was 3.5 % in 2021, 8.0 % in 2022, 5.2 % in 2023, 2.3 % in 2024, 2.3 % in 2025. The West region posted 4.5 %, 8.0 %, 4.3 %, 2.8 %, 2.7 % in the same years. Denver was above the region in 2 of those 5 years (2022, 2023). The West region is priced monthly and has a larger sample, which the BLS suggests for escalation clauses.

Record years since 1964

The peak annual rate is 15.5 %, in 1979. The lowest rate was -0.6 %, in 2009. The annual average fell in 2009. Over a longer horizon, Denver prices rose 230 % from the 1985 annual average to September 2026, less than the 231 % of the West region over the same span.

Annual figures only, 1987 to 2017

Between December 1986 and November 2017 the BLS published no monthly Denver index. For those years the data hold only annual averages. A month inside that span uses the annual average of its year, and the calculator says so under the result. If you need month-to-month detail for those years, the West region, priced every month throughout, is the alternative.