CPIAUCSL
CPI All Urban — the headline inflation number
Official name: Consumer Price Index for All Urban Consumers: All Items in U.S. City Average
Latest value
330.2930
as of 2026-03-01
All-time percentile
100th
1-year change
+3.3%
Time series
Showing 58 of 58 data points
About this series
Consumer Price Index for All Urban Consumers, seasonally adjusted. The most widely cited "inflation number" in the US. Published monthly by the BLS around the 10th-15th of the following month.
Why it matters: This is the CPI that makes the headlines. It drives TIPS adjustments, Social Security COLAs, and many contract-level inflation adjustments. Fed officially targets PCE (see PCEPILFE) but reacts to CPI prints because they're earlier and more watched.
How to read it: This series is the index level. Year-over-year percent change is the headline "inflation rate" everyone quotes. Fed target equivalent is ~2.5% YoY on CPI (which roughly maps to 2% PCE).
Caveats: CPI consistently runs ~0.3-0.5 percentage points higher than PCE due to methodology differences — this is the primary reason the Fed targets PCE instead. The 2022-23 inflation episode was most dramatic on CPI.