Inflation by category: what rose fastest
Enter what you spent on one category at a past date: the result uses that category's CPI-U in the area you choose.
Same purchase in September 2026
$679.28
$500.00 in 2019 average buys what $679.28 buys in September 2026, U.S. average, shelter.
| Cumulative price change | +35.9 % |
| Average per year | +4.34 % |
| All items, same dates | +31.8 % |
| Index, 2019 average | 318.053 |
| Index, September 2026 | 432.092 |
| BLS series | CUUR0000SAH1 |
Prepared by Radif Partners · How the figures are built · BLS indexes through September 2026
Over the 12 months to September 2026, energy rose fastest of the main spending groups of the CPI-U, at +20.4 %, and medical care slowest, at +1.5 %; all items rose 3.7 %. The BLS divides the basket into eight major groups: food and beverages, housing, apparel, transportation, medical care, recreation, education and communication, and other goods and services. Housing is the heaviest, 44.5 % of the CPI-U in the December 2025 weights, with shelter alone at 35.6 %; apparel is the lightest at 2.4 %. Energy, a cross-cutting index of gasoline and household fuels and power, weighs 6.4 %. The calculator applies one group's index to what you spent: groceries since 2019, a rent since a given month, a medical bill. Every group is published for every area on this site since 1997, except some local series that have gaps.
The groups and their weights
| Group | Weight in the CPI-U | 12 months | Latest month |
|---|---|---|---|
| Energy | 6.4 % | +20.4 % | September 2026 |
| Transportation | 16.3 % | +7.9 % | September 2026 |
| Other goods and services | 2.9 % | +4.1 % | September 2026 |
| Apparel | 2.4 % | +3.4 % | September 2026 |
| Housing | 44.5 % | +3.3 % | September 2026 |
| Shelter | 35.6 % | +3.2 % | September 2026 |
| Recreation | 5.1 % | +2.8 % | September 2026 |
| Food and beverages | 13.7 % | +2.4 % | September 2026 |
| Education and communication | 5.8 % | +2.3 % | September 2026 |
| Food at home | 8.3 % | +1.8 % | September 2026 |
| Medical care | 8.4 % | +1.5 % | September 2026 |
The weight of a group is its share of what urban households spend, measured from the Consumer Expenditure Surveys and updated every year since January 2023 data. A group with a big weight moves the all items index even with a modest change; a small group can jump without moving it much. That is why a rise in rents matters more for the headline than a jump in clothing prices.
What moved the index this year
Weight times change gives a rough idea of what each group added to the 12-month rate. Over the 12 months to September 2026, the largest contributions came from energy (about 1.3 point), transportation (about 1.3 point), shelter (about 1.1 point). It is an approximation: the BLS computes exact contributions with weights that drift as relative prices change during the year. But it shows why the 2026 jump in energy prices lifted the headline so much although energy is a small share of the basket.
Apply one category to your spending
Same purchase in September 2026
$771.50
| Cumulative price change | +28.6 % |
| Average per year | +4.13 % |
| All items, same dates | +30.2 % |
| Index, 2020 average | 250.233 |
Over a longer span
Since the 2019 annual average, all items rose 31.8 %. Among the groups, the largest cumulative rises were energy (+58.7 %), transportation (+40.8 %), housing (+35.9 %) and the smallest apparel (+12.9 %) and education and communication (+9.5 %). The gap between the fastest and the slowest group over seven years is much wider than over one, which is why the choice of index matters most for long contracts.
Each group index is built from many item indexes. The BLS gives examples: food and beverages covers breakfast cereal, milk, coffee, chicken, wine, full service meals and snacks; housing covers rent of primary residence, owners' equivalent rent, utilities and furniture; transportation covers new vehicles, airline fares, gasoline and motor vehicle insurance; medical care covers prescription drugs, medical services and health insurance. A group can therefore hide very different movements: in transportation, a fall in airline fares and a jump in gasoline can offset each other.
Your own basket
The groups let you rebuild an inflation closer to your own. A household that spends a third of its budget on rent and little on transportation lives an inflation closer to the shelter index than to the headline; a household that drives a lot and owns its home feels energy more. To estimate your own rate, apply each relevant group to what you spend on it and add the results: with $1,500 of rent, $600 of groceries and $250 of gasoline a month, the shelter, food at home and energy indexes give three separate increases whose sum is your own price change on those three lines. The BLS warns that published averages do not always match an individual's experience, and this is the most direct way to see why.
Groups in the metro areas
The BLS publishes the same groups for the regions and the 23 metros, from a smaller sample. Local group indexes move a lot from one release to the next, and a few series have gaps, which the calculator reports as "not published". Each metro page lists its groups at the latest month. The four pages that follow look closer at the groups people ask about most:
- Rent and shelter: the heaviest item, and the slowest to turn.
- Food: groceries against restaurants.
- Energy: gasoline, electricity and gas, the most volatile.
- Medical care: services and insurance, with the noisiest local indexes.
What the groups leave out
The CPI measures prices of consumer goods and services, including sales and excise taxes tied to purchases. It excludes income and Social Security taxes, and investment items such as stocks, bonds, real estate and life insurance, because those are not consumption. Health, household and vehicle insurance are in scope. A house purchase is not in shelter: the BLS treats owned homes as capital goods and follows instead the implicit rent owners would pay for their home. Mortgage interest, property taxes and improvements are left out for the same reason, as are interest costs and finance charges in general (BLS Handbook).