Inflation Isn't One Number: Personal Inflation by Household Type (2026 Data Study)
The CPI is one number, but no household buys the CPI's basket. We priced 17 real household baskets, by income, age and family type, at today's price changes to see whose inflation is running hottest.
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📐 Data verified Sep 28, 2026: spending from the BLS Consumer Expenditure Survey, 2024 annual means (the latest year published), priced with 12-month CPI changes to August 2026 from the BLS release of Sep 11, 2026, bound to our figures registry, so every rate on this page is recalculated when new CPI data arrive. How we check numbers →
We priced what 17 household types actually buy at the latest 12-month price changes. Their inflation rates run from 3.02% for householders under 25 to 3.27% for ages 45 to 54. Gasoline pushes every group up, while cheaper used cars and car insurance pull them down, so spending on driving moves a household's rate more than its income does.
Numbers That Matter
| Figure | Amount | Source | Verified |
|---|---|---|---|
| CPI-U, 12-month change to August 2026 | 3.4% | BLS CPI-U series | Sep 26, 2026 |
| The average household basket, priced the same way | 3.16% | DWS analysis of BLS CE and CPI data | Sep 28, 2026 |
| Range across 17 household types | 3.02% to 3.27% | DWS analysis of BLS CE and CPI data | Sep 28, 2026 |
| Gasoline and motor fuel, 12 months | 27.9% | BLS CPI | Sep 26, 2026 |
| Airline fares, 12 months | 23.4% | BLS CPI | Sep 26, 2026 |
| Vehicle insurance, 12 months | -5.1% | BLS CPI | Sep 26, 2026 |
| Used vehicles, 12 months | -2.3% | BLS CPI | Sep 26, 2026 |
| Spending data | Consumer Expenditure Survey, 2024 annual means | BLS | Sep 28, 2026 |
Inflation by Household Type
Each rate below is what that household's own 2024 spending would cost now against a year earlier, using the CPI's 12-month change for each category through August 2026.
| Household | Spending priced (2024) | Of which gasoline and motor fuel | Personal inflation rate |
|---|---|---|---|
| All households | $66,021 | $2,637 | 3.16% |
| Lowest-income fifth | $33,457 | $1,263 | 3.15% |
| Second-lowest fifth | $45,682 | $2,028 | 3.15% |
| Middle fifth | $58,350 | $2,641 | 3.19% |
| Second-highest fifth | $75,114 | $3,346 | 3.21% |
| Highest-income fifth | $117,261 | $3,898 | 3.12% |
| Householder under 25 | $42,215 | $1,842 | 3.02% |
| Age 25 to 34 | $62,251 | $2,645 | 3.17% |
| Age 35 to 44 | $75,584 | $3,077 | 3.15% |
| Age 45 to 54 | $81,459 | $3,693 | 3.27% |
| Age 55 to 64 | $70,024 | $2,763 | 3.15% |
| Age 65 to 74 | $57,614 | $2,141 | 3.10% |
| Age 75 and older | $50,336 | $1,321 | 3.03% |
| Married, oldest child under 6 | $86,831 | $2,913 | 3.07% |
| Married, oldest child 6 to 17 | $95,211 | $4,057 | 3.23% |
| Single parent, child under 18 | $54,728 | $2,175 | 3.07% |
| Single-person and other households | $48,655 | $1,835 | 3.11% |
The spread by age, from the youngest householders to those 45 to 54, is wider than the spread across all five income groups. Right now, what a household spends on driving matters more than how much it earns.
What Drives the Differences
Gasoline. Motor fuel is up 27.9% over the year and is the largest single contributor for every group. It takes 4.5% of the 45-to-54 basket and 4.5% of the middle-income basket, but only 2.6% for households 75 and older. Married couples whose oldest child is 6 to 17 spend the most on it, $4,057 a year.
Flying. Airline fares are up 23.4%. They are 1.5% of the highest-income basket and 0.6% of the lowest, which is most of what keeps higher-income rates from falling further behind.
Cars, the other way. Vehicle insurance is down -5.1% and used vehicles -2.3% over the year, so car-heavy households get some relief on the same side of the budget that gasoline is squeezing.
Housing. Rent is up 2.7% and owners' equivalent rent 3.1%, so renters, who dominate the youngest and lowest-income groups, see shelter costs rise a bit more slowly than owners' housing measures.
Heating fuel and health care. Fuel oil is up 52.0%, a small share for most but real money for homes that burn it. Health insurance, medical services, drugs and supplies make up 15.7% of the 75-and-older basket, the most of any group, and those prices are barely moving: 2.5% for services and -2.7% for drugs and supplies.
Your Household Isn't Average Either
These baskets are averages for each group, and your own spending can look very different. A long commute, an oil-heated house or two new-driver teenagers on the insurance policy will push your rate above anything in the table. So will a year of heavy travel. The Personal Inflation Calculator applies the same category changes to your own budget, and the personal inflation guide walks through the method.
Worked Example: Building One Household's Rate
- Gasoline and motor fuel: $3,693 of 2024 spending would have cost $2,887 a year earlier, because prices rose 27.9%.
- Owned home: $12,500 would have cost $12,124, with owners' equivalent rent up 3.1%.
- Vehicle insurance: $2,609 would have cost $2,749, more than today, because insurance fell -5.1%.
- All 23 categories together: $81,459 of spending, priced a year earlier and compared, gives a personal inflation rate of 3.27%.
The rate is today's cost of the basket divided by its cost a year earlier, minus one. The full baskets are in the table at the end.
Methodology
We took 2024 annual average spending for 17 household types from the BLS Consumer Expenditure Survey flat files (income fifths, age of the reference person and family type) and matched 37 spending items to 23 CPI categories, such as groceries to food at home and gasoline, diesel and motor oil to motor fuel. Owned-home costs are priced with owners' equivalent rent, as the CPI does. We left out vehicle finance charges, cash gifts, and personal insurance and pension contributions, which aren't consumer prices, and purchases of other vehicles such as boats and RVs, which the 2024 files don't provide for these groups. Each rate is the basket's cost today divided by its cost a year earlier, minus one, using unadjusted 12-month changes. Priced this way, the average household comes out at 3.16%, a little under the official 3.4%, because the CPI weights housing more heavily than these spending figures do. The index series we price against is CPI-U, all items, not seasonally adjusted and its category components.
The Baskets
Annual 2024 spending by category for each household type (scroll sideways on a phone). The CPI change used for each category is in parentheses.
| Category | All households | Lowest-income fifth | Second-lowest fifth | Middle fifth | Second-highest fifth | Highest-income fifth | Householder under 25 | Age 25 to 34 | Age 35 to 44 | Age 45 to 54 | Age 55 to 64 | Age 65 to 74 | Age 75 and older | Married, oldest child under 6 | Married, oldest child 6 to 17 | Single parent, child under 18 | Single-person and other households |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Groceries (2.2%) | $6,224 | $3,843 | $4,952 | $5,820 | $7,162 | $9,336 | $4,189 | $5,712 | $7,411 | $7,703 | $6,174 | $5,642 | $4,696 | $8,317 | $9,582 | $5,666 | $4,320 |
| Restaurants (3.4%) | $3,945 | $1,655 | $2,448 | $3,277 | $4,682 | $7,652 | $3,025 | $3,918 | $5,049 | $5,069 | $4,040 | $2,841 | $2,472 | $5,139 | $6,177 | $3,529 | $2,622 |
| Alcohol (1.6%) | $643 | $244 | $342 | $504 | $726 | $1,395 | $382 | $600 | $727 | $838 | $657 | $610 | $422 | $742 | $767 | $391 | $452 |
| Owned home (owners' equivalent rent) (3.1%) | $9,310 | $2,989 | $5,153 | $7,657 | $10,557 | $20,133 | $1,127 | $6,983 | $10,552 | $12,500 | $11,150 | $8,536 | $7,711 | $14,821 | $15,683 | $5,521 | $5,712 |
| Rent (2.7%) | $5,660 | $5,781 | $6,225 | $6,720 | $5,697 | $3,894 | $10,119 | $9,927 | $7,036 | $5,001 | $3,619 | $2,681 | $4,435 | $6,382 | $3,477 | $8,027 | $7,446 |
| Other lodging (3.0%) | $1,347 | $409 | $523 | $880 | $1,597 | $3,312 | $804 | $745 | $1,139 | $1,782 | $1,738 | $1,533 | $1,200 | $1,099 | $1,906 | $819 | $736 |
| Natural gas (4.4%) | $493 | $287 | $410 | $458 | $555 | $751 | $190 | $375 | $509 | $587 | $538 | $497 | $538 | $569 | $677 | $395 | $389 |
| Electricity (3.8%) | $1,833 | $1,276 | $1,674 | $1,813 | $2,023 | $2,376 | $952 | $1,721 | $1,965 | $2,158 | $1,949 | $1,769 | $1,608 | $2,020 | $2,328 | $1,944 | $1,488 |
| Fuel oil and other fuels (52.0%) | $125 | $63 | $107 | $96 | $139 | $220 | $9 | $70 | $103 | $128 | $163 | $170 | $156 | $138 | $160 | $62 | $93 |
| Phone, water, household services, education (3.0%) | $5,776 | $2,987 | $3,409 | $4,528 | $6,077 | $11,845 | $4,301 | $5,230 | $6,828 | $8,126 | $5,881 | $4,183 | $4,308 | $10,761 | $9,916 | $5,252 | $3,849 |
| Furnishings, supplies, reading (0.7%) | $3,466 | $1,663 | $2,156 | $2,779 | $4,304 | $6,421 | $2,282 | $2,843 | $3,847 | $3,971 | $3,991 | $3,580 | $2,530 | $4,498 | $4,548 | $2,469 | $2,429 |
| Clothing (3.6%) | $2,001 | $1,124 | $1,328 | $1,642 | $2,034 | $3,872 | $1,541 | $2,220 | $2,649 | $2,547 | $2,032 | $1,377 | $942 | $3,356 | $3,263 | $1,976 | $1,319 |
| New vehicles (0.6%) | $2,469 | $819 | $982 | $1,365 | $2,333 | $6,823 | $1,181 | $2,487 | $2,827 | $2,467 | $3,356 | $2,325 | $1,311 | $2,636 | $3,499 | $1,559 | $1,440 |
| Used vehicles (-2.3%) | $2,818 | $883 | $1,942 | $2,750 | $3,513 | $4,989 | $2,944 | $2,776 | $3,709 | $3,841 | $2,938 | $2,196 | $719 | $4,174 | $4,959 | $3,358 | $1,994 |
| Gasoline and motor fuel (27.9%) | $2,637 | $1,263 | $2,028 | $2,641 | $3,346 | $3,898 | $1,842 | $2,645 | $3,077 | $3,693 | $2,763 | $2,141 | $1,321 | $2,913 | $4,057 | $2,175 | $1,835 |
| Vehicle repair (5.2%) | $984 | $394 | $693 | $950 | $1,174 | $1,707 | $537 | $855 | $1,064 | $1,263 | $1,154 | $934 | $643 | $869 | $1,326 | $826 | $725 |
| Vehicle insurance (-5.1%) | $1,993 | $895 | $1,679 | $2,028 | $2,518 | $2,840 | $1,251 | $1,888 | $2,155 | $2,609 | $2,252 | $1,723 | $1,323 | $2,060 | $2,458 | $1,631 | $1,554 |
| Other transportation (2.4%) | $1,260 | $534 | $607 | $1,109 | $1,537 | $2,504 | $688 | $1,133 | $1,417 | $1,668 | $1,293 | $1,158 | $941 | $1,734 | $1,671 | $952 | $911 |
| Airline fares (23.4%) | $682 | $201 | $257 | $430 | $796 | $1,719 | $318 | $495 | $724 | $897 | $828 | $677 | $495 | $800 | $1,019 | $474 | $446 |
| Health insurance and medical services (2.5%) | $5,307 | $2,814 | $4,042 | $4,905 | $6,297 | $8,457 | $1,224 | $3,424 | $5,223 | $5,808 | $5,665 | $6,491 | $6,650 | $6,137 | $7,105 | $2,807 | $3,650 |
| Drugs and medical supplies (-2.7%) | $891 | $631 | $784 | $772 | $951 | $1,316 | $262 | $401 | $726 | $939 | $1,046 | $1,224 | $1,268 | $679 | $952 | $440 | $617 |
| Entertainment, personal care, other (2.4%) | $5,805 | $2,362 | $3,582 | $4,789 | $6,736 | $11,534 | $2,858 | $5,504 | $6,449 | $7,403 | $6,362 | $5,006 | $4,459 | $6,856 | $9,370 | $4,234 | $4,250 |
| Tobacco (6.3%) | $352 | $340 | $359 | $437 | $360 | $267 | $189 | $299 | $398 | $461 | $435 | $320 | $188 | $131 | $311 | $221 | $378 |
Decision Rules
If this, then that
- If you drive a lot → assume your inflation is running above the headline while gasoline leads the index.
- If you fly often → budget for fares rising far faster than prices overall.
- If you heat with fuel oil → plan for a much bigger heating bill than the CPI suggests.
- If you're renegotiating pay or a budget → use your own rate, not the headline.
- If your costs are mostly fixed, like a locked mortgage → your rate is probably below the headline.
Mistakes to avoid
- Assuming the headline CPI is your inflation rate.
- Assuming lower-income households always face higher inflation; it depends on what's rising.
- Ignoring categories that are falling, like car insurance this year.
- Comparing a one-month change with a 12-month one.
Related: your personal inflation rate explains the method for one household; the energy-shock budget covers what $4 gas costs a family; did your raise beat inflation? puts your rate to work on your pay; and the money numbers calendar shows when the next CPI lands. More guides are in the Economy, Rates & Inflation hub.