Urban Hawaii inflation calculator: CPI-U since 1963

What "Urban Hawaii" covers

The BLS publishes 23 metro area indexes. Twenty-one are large areas of more than 2.5 million people. The other two are special: Anchorage, which represents all core-based statistical areas in Alaska, and Honolulu, which represents all of those in Hawaii. The BLS Handbook explains that their location makes price change in these markets geographically isolated from other markets, so each state is treated as its own stratum. The published name follows: this is the Urban Hawaii index, not a Honolulu city index, and it is the closest local series for an amount tied to an urban part of the state.

Top of the table right now

At 5.2 %, Urban Hawaii ranks the highest of the 23 local indexes on the latest 12-month change. It is above the West region, which includes it, and above the nation. Over the annual averages from 2021 to 2025, Urban Hawaii was above the West in 1 of 5 years. From the 1985 average, its prices rose 245 %, the West 231 %.

The groups behind it

Ranked by their gap with the national index, the leading Urban Hawaii groups over the latest 12 months were recreation (+9.8 % against +2.8 %), other goods and services (+9.5 % against +4.1 %) and medical care (+6.1 % against +1.5 %). Shelter was +4.2 %, energy +20.9 % and food at home +4.1 %.

Some Urban Hawaii group series are short. Medical care starts only in September 2020, and most other groups in 2017. With a small sample, a local group can jump in one release and fall back in the next; the BLS urges users of escalator clauses to consider regional or national indexes for that reason.

Odd months and a full 2025

Urban Hawaii is priced in January, March, May, July, September and November. No October 2025 index exists anywhere because the BLS collected no prices during the lapse, but October was never an Urban Hawaii month, so the series has no gap and its 2025 annual average uses its six months. The next index, for November 2026, comes out on December 10, 2026. Enter an even month and the calculator uses the month before.

Records since 1963

The fastest Urban Hawaii year is 1980, at 11.7 %; the slowest, 1998, at -0.2 %. The annual average fell in 1998. Keep one thing in mind: the BLS published no monthly Urban Hawaii index between December 1986 and November 2017, only annual averages. A month in that span uses its year's annual average, with a note; the West region covers those years month by month.