US CPI-U annual-average inflation, 2015–2025

PROVEN: US consumer-price inflation averaged 0.1% in 2015, climbed to 8.0% in 2022 and declined to 2.6% in 2025, using the Bureau of Labor Statistics' annual-average national CPI-U series. The retreat after 2022 is disinflation, not a return of the price level to 2019. A worker whose nominal wage rises by less than consumer prices faces a real purchasing-power loss. Retirees and people with fixed nominal income may also see their effective budget tighten. People holding fixed-rate nominal debt can experience different effects. The headline does not tell which household has the highest burden without a detailed spending basket. The BLS page titled Summary of annual and semi-annual indexes publishes the all-items Consumer Price Index for All Urban Consumers (CPI-U), US city average for each calendar year 2015–2025. Its percent-change field compares a calendar year's twelve-month average price index with the preceding year's annual average, expressed in percent and rounded to one decimal. It is not December's year-on-year inflation rate, the personal consumption expenditures index used by the Federal Reserve, or a seasonally adjusted monthly CPI change. The underlying CPI-U index uses the historical 1982–84=100 reference and weights based on surveyed urban household purchases. The inflation-rate units stay valid when index bases are changed, subject to revisions of the underlying measures. The table's 2025 annual percentage was 2.6%, whereas the December 2025 year-on-year rate was 2.7%; using one in place of the other would confuse users. The October 2025 gap in monthly CPI data caused by the federal shutdown is an important quality limitation, not a reason to invent that month's observation. BLS publishes the price statistic; it does not set inflation policy. Congress and the executive shape taxes, tariffs, spending and regulation. The Federal Reserve sets monetary policy under its statutory goals and influences aggregate demand through financial conditions, but cannot determine the price of every consumer product. Energy producers, transport firms and retailers pass on inputs under different market structures. In the immediate consumer budget, households that spend a greater share of income on essentials can experience sharper pressure even when the national index is unchanged. Wage earners with strong bargaining positions may recover some lost purchasing power. A fall in the annual CPI increase benefits many consumers but can coincide with weak job growth or expensive credit. Fiscal transfers may offset hardship without changing the index by the same percentage. Rates were mostly between 0.1% and 2.4% during 2015–2020, then rose to 4.7% in 2021 and 8.0% in 2022. After the pandemic supply shock and monetary tightening, the annual average eased to 4.1% in 2023, 2.9% in 2024 and 2.6% in 2025. This chronology is consistent with several overlapping supply, fiscal and monetary channels; it does not independently identify their causal shares. The strongest counter-view holds that moderate positive inflation is not necessarily damaging if wages keep pace and employment remains strong. That is valid in principle. However, the price level and distributional wage differences make the CPI an important enduring cost-of-living signal. Monitor real wages, rent and shelter costs, food and energy sub-indices, CPI-weight revisions, interest rates and household debt. Do not infer a criminal act or a particular firm's profit margin from the aggregate statistic. | Year | % | | --- | ---: | | 2015 | 0.1 | | 2016 | 1.3 | | 2017 | 2.1 | | 2018 | 2.4 | | 2019 | 1.8 | | 2020 | 1.2 | | 2021 | 4.7 | | 2022 | 8.0 | | 2023 | 4.1 | | 2024 | 2.9 | | 2025 | 2.6 | - US Bureau of Labor Statistics, National CPI-U annual-average percent changes 2015–2025 - US Bureau of Labor Statistics, Monthly all-items CPI-U history and measurement definition Related driver: US inflation, monetary tightening and household purchasing power. Data begins: 2015.