Inflation rate by year: every year since 1914
Pick a year and an area: the rate compares the annual average CPI-U with the year before, as the BLS does for its annual figures.
Inflation in 2025, U.S. average
+2.6 %
Annual average 321.943 against 313.689 in 2024.
| Annual average change | +2.63 % |
| December to December | +2.68 % |
| $100 of 2025 in September 2026 | $104.66 |
The 2025 average uses the 11 months published; October 2025 is missing.
Prepared by Radif Partners · How the figures are built · BLS indexes through September 2026
U.S. inflation was 2.6 % in 2025, measured as the change in the annual average CPI-U from 2024, after 2.9 % in 2024, 4.1 % in 2023 and 8.0 % in 2022, the highest since the early 1980s. Measured December to December, 2025 came in at 2.7 %. Since 1914 the highest annual rate was 18.0 % in 1918 and the lowest -10.5 % in 1921; since 1950 the peak was 13.5 % in 1980, and prices fell over a full year only in 1955 and 2009. The 2025 average was computed by the BLS from 11 months, because October 2025 was never published. For 2026 no annual figure exists yet: from December 2025 to September 2026 prices rose 4.0 %, and the annual average will come with the December index on January 13, 2027. The calculator above gives the same two measures for any year and any area.
Two ways to measure a year
The BLS reports two annual rates, and they rarely match. The annual average change compares the average of the twelve monthly indexes of one year with the average of the year before. The December to December change compares the last month of each year. In 2021, for example, the annual average rose 4.7 % while December to December reached 7.0 %, because prices were accelerating through the year and the December figure caught the end of the climb. In 2022 it was the reverse: 8.0 % on the average, 6.5 % December to December, as the climb slowed.
Which one is right depends on the question. For what happened to prices during a year, December to December says it best. For the price level of one year compared with another, such as a salary paid evenly over twelve months, the annual average is the better match. The BLS notes that December to December changes are more volatile, because they rest on two months rather than twenty-four.
The last thirty years
| Year | Annual average CPI-U | Annual average change | December to December |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | 321.943 | +2.6 % | +2.7 % |
| 2024 | 313.689 | +2.9 % | +2.9 % |
| 2023 | 304.702 | +4.1 % | +3.4 % |
| 2022 | 292.655 | +8.0 % | +6.5 % |
| 2021 | 270.97 | +4.7 % | +7.0 % |
| 2020 | 258.811 | +1.2 % | +1.4 % |
| 2019 | 255.657 | +1.8 % | +2.3 % |
| 2018 | 251.107 | +2.4 % | +1.9 % |
| 2017 | 245.12 | +2.1 % | +2.1 % |
| 2016 | 240.007 | +1.3 % | +2.1 % |
| 2015 | 237.017 | +0.1 % | +0.7 % |
| 2014 | 236.736 | +1.6 % | +0.8 % |
| 2013 | 232.957 | +1.5 % | +1.5 % |
| 2012 | 229.594 | +2.1 % | +1.7 % |
| 2011 | 224.939 | +3.2 % | +3.0 % |
| 2010 | 218.056 | +1.6 % | +1.5 % |
| 2009 | 214.537 | -0.4 % | +2.7 % |
| 2008 | 215.303 | +3.8 % | +0.1 % |
| 2007 | 207.342 | +2.8 % | +4.1 % |
| 2006 | 201.6 | +3.2 % | +2.5 % |
| 2005 | 195.3 | +3.4 % | +3.4 % |
| 2004 | 188.9 | +2.7 % | +3.3 % |
| 2003 | 184 | +2.3 % | +1.9 % |
| 2002 | 179.9 | +1.6 % | +2.4 % |
| 2001 | 177.1 | +2.8 % | +1.6 % |
| 2000 | 172.2 | +3.4 % | +3.4 % |
| 1999 | 166.6 | +2.2 % | +2.7 % |
| 1998 | 163 | +1.6 % | +1.6 % |
| 1997 | 160.5 | +2.3 % | +1.7 % |
| 1996 | 156.9 | +3.0 % | +3.3 % |
Decades at a glance
Average yearly inflation, from the annual average of the year before the decade to the last year of it, gives the long rhythm of U.S. prices:
| Decade | Average per year |
|---|---|
| 1950s | 2.0 % |
| 1960s | 2.3 % |
| 1970s | 7.1 % |
| 1980s | 5.5 % |
| 1990s | 3.0 % |
| 2000s | 2.6 % |
| 2010s | 1.8 % |
The 1970s and the early 1980s stand apart, with two oil shocks and a price level that more than doubled in ten years. The 2010s were the calmest decade since the 1950s. The 2020s started with 1.2 % in 2020, then the surge of 2021 and 2022, then a slow return toward the rates of the 2010s that stopped short in 2026 when energy prices jumped.
Inflation in one year, for your area
Inflation in 2022, New York
+6.1 %
| Annual average change | +6.10 % |
| December to December | +6.33 % |
| $100 of 2022 in September 2026 | $117.32 |
The same year in your city
Every metro has its own yearly rates, and they can be far from the national one. Choose an area in the calculator: the list of years starts with the first year for which that area has two annual averages to compare, early in the twentieth century for the oldest metros and much later for Tampa, Phoenix and Riverside. For areas priced every other month, the annual average still exists, built from their six monthly values; the December to December change exists only for the areas priced in December, which means the monthly ones and the even-month ones. The CPI by city page lists the rhythm of each area.
Adding up several years
Yearly rates do not add, they compound. Three years at 4.7 %, 8.0 % and 4.1 % make a rise of 17.7 % from 2020 to 2023, slightly more than the sum of the three. The simplest way to get the total is to skip the rates and divide the two index levels: the annual average of 2023 by the annual average of 2020. That is what the CPI calculator and the inflation calculator do, for any two months or years.
The same logic works backward. To express a 1990 amount in 2025 dollars, multiply it by the 2025 average divided by the 1990 average; to see what share of buying power a fixed pension lost, divide the other way. Averaging the yearly rates of a long period, by contrast, understates the total, because it ignores the compounding.
2025 and the missing October
The BLS never published an October 2025 index, so the 2025 annual average of most series is the average of 11 months, and of 5 months for even-month metros. The 2.6 % of 2025 compares that 11-month average with the 12-month average of 2024. It is the official figure, and it is what this site shows; we do not recompute a 12-month average with an estimated October. The October 2025 page explains the reasons.
Where the figures come from
Every annual average on this page is the value the BLS published in its files, not an average we computed. The year-on-year change is computed from those published averages and rounded to a tenth at display. 1913, the first year of the index, has no year before it, so the first annual change is the one for 1914.