US inflation by category
Headline CPI ran 3.53% over the year to June 2026. That single number covers nine expenditure groups running anywhere from 15.7% (energy & fuel) to -0.1% (education & communication), a spread of 15.8 percentage points. Only 4 of 9 groups are running above the headline rate.
By Joey van Diest, founder and editor Updated
Headline CPI
3.53%
year over year
Fastest minus slowest
15.8pp
70th pct since 1991
Accelerating
1 of 9
vs the prior month
Every group, ranked
| Expenditure group | Year over year | vs last month | Own history |
|---|---|---|---|
| Energy & fuel above headline | 15.70% | -7.84pp | 84th pct |
| Transportation above headline | 6.52% | -2.81pp | 84th pct |
| Other goods & services above headline | 4.59% | -0.32pp | 73th pct |
| Apparel above headline | 3.88% | -0.91pp | 92th pct |
| Housing | 3.34% | -0.26pp | 77th pct |
| Food & beverages | 2.96% | -0.07pp | 69th pct |
| Recreation | 2.83% | +0.20pp | 89th pct |
| Medical care | 2.03% | -0.57pp | 11th pct |
| Education & communication | -0.06% | -0.90pp | 5th pct |
"Own history" is where each group's current year-over-year rate sits against its own record since 1990, so a low number means unusually slow for that category, not slow in absolute terms.
Why the spread matters more than the headline
"Inflation is 3.53%" describes a statistical basket, and almost nobody buys that basket. Your own rate depends on where your money actually goes. Someone who drives a lot and rents lives in a different inflation environment from someone who owns outright and works from home, even in the same month and the same city.
The 15.8-point gap between energy & fuel and education & communication is what that difference looks like in the data, and it sits at the 70th percentile of every month since 1991. If you want your own number rather than the national one, the personal inflation tracker weights these same official categories by what you actually spend.
What this page will not tell you
It cannot say which category "drove" the headline number. That would need BLS relative-importance weights, which say how much of household spending each group accounts for, and we do not publish those here. A group can be inflating fast and still barely move the index if people spend little on it. Every figure above ranks by rate, never by contribution, and any page telling you otherwise from unweighted rates is guessing.
Two other limits worth stating. These are not-seasonally-adjusted indexes, which is why everything is measured year over year rather than month to month. And energy is a cross-cutting BLS aggregate covering both home energy and motor fuel, so it overlaps with parts of housing and transportation rather than sitting beside them cleanly.
For the headline number on its own see the current US inflation rate, or the historical series. Every monthly category index used here is downloadable as CSV.
Method and limitations
Year-over-year rates are computed from the BLS monthly index for each expenditure group against the same month a year earlier, and the headline rate from the CPI-U all-items series the same way, so the comparison is like for like. Percentiles use each series' own record since 1990. Everything is baked from BLS bulk files on our build schedule; nothing is fetched while you read the page.
Data sources
- U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, CPI-U by expenditure group · CUUR0000SAF, SAH, SAA, SAT, SAM, SAR, SAE, SAG and SA0E; not seasonally adjusted, 1982-84=100; public domain
For general information and education only. This is not financial advice and not a recommendation to buy or sell anything. This tool is provided as is, with no warranty of accuracy: like any software it can contain errors, so always verify figures against your broker or the original source before acting on them. Trading and investing carry risk, including the risk of losing more than your initial outlay.
Spotted an error? Email [email protected] and it will be corrected. Maintained by Joey van Diest.