Consumer price inflation, UK: September 2026

• The Consumer Prices Index including owner occupiers' housing costs (CPIH) rose by 3.6% in the 12 months to September 2026, up from 3.3% the previous month.
• On a monthly basis, CPIH rose by 0.4% in September 2026, compared with a rise of 0.1% in September 2025.

• The Consumer Prices Index (CPI) rose by 3.5% in the 12 months to September 2026, up from 3.1% the previous month.

• On a monthly basis, CPI rose by 0.4% in September 2026, compared with little change in September 2025.

• Transport, particularly motor fuels, made the largest upward contribution to the monthly change in both CPIH and CPI annual rates; restaurants and hotels made the largest, partially offsetting, downward contribution.

• Core CPIH (CPIH excluding energy, food, alcohol, and tobacco) rose by 3.1% in the 12 months to September 2026, up from 2.9% in August; the CPIH goods annual rate rose from 2.7% to 3.2%, while the CPIH services annual rate rose from 3.6% to 3.9%.

• Core CPI (CPI excluding energy, food, alcohol, and tobacco) rose by 2.8% in the 12 months to September 2026, up from 2.6% in August; the CPI goods annual rate rose from 2.7% to 3.2%, while the CPI services annual rate rose from 3.4% to 3.7%.

The Consumer Prices Index including owner occupiers' housing costs (CPIH) rose by 3.6% in the 12 months to September 2026, up from 3.3% the previous month (Figure 1).

On a monthly basis, CPIH rose by 0.4% in September 2026, compared with a rise of 0.1% in September 2025.

The Consumer Prices Index (CPI) rose by 3.5% in the 12 months to September 2026, up from 3.1% the previous month.

On a monthly basis, CPI rose by 0.4% in September 2026, compared with little change in September 2025.

The main drivers of the annual inflation rate for CPIH and CPI are the same where they are common to both measures. However, the owner occupiers' housing (OOH) costs component accounts for approximately 18% of the CPIH and is the main driver for differences between the CPIH and CPI inflation rates.

This makes CPIH our most comprehensive measure of inflation. We cover this in more detail in Section 4: Latest movements in CPIH inflation and provide a commentary on the CPI in Section 5: Latest movements in CPI inflation. We also cover both CPIH and CPI in Section 3: Notable movements in prices, though the figures reflect CPIH.

Figure 2 shows the contributions from the 12 divisions to the change in the annual Consumer Prices Index including owner occupiers’ housing costs (CPIH) inflation rate between August and September 2026. These sum to the change in the annual rate, from 3.3% to 3.6%, between these months.

The increase in the 12-month rate between August and September 2026 reflected upward contributions from six divisions, partially offset by downward contributions from three divisions. The largest upward contribution came from transport, particularly motor fuels. The largest offsetting downward contribution came from restaurants and hotels.

Transport

Prices in the transport division rose overall by 6.6% in the 12 months to September 2026, up from 4.6% the previous month (Figure 3). On a monthly basis, prices fell by 0.4% in September 2026, compared with a fall of 2.3% a year ago.

The largest upward effect contributing to the rise in the transport annual rate came from motor fuels.

The average price of petrol rose by 8.2 pence per litre between August and September 2026, compared with a fall of 0.2 pence per litre between August and September 2025. The average price stood at 169.5 pence per litre in September 2026. This is the highest price recorded since August 2022.

Diesel prices rose by 10.7 pence per litre in September 2026, compared with a fall of 0.4 pence per litre in September 2025. The average price stood at 192.5 pence per litre in September 2026. This is the highest price recorded since July 2022.

These movements resulted in overall motor fuel prices rising by 29.8% in the 12 months to September 2026, compared with a rise of 23.0% the previous month.

Within transport, there were smaller upward effects from air fares and sea fares, and partially offsetting small downward effects from roadside recovery, and second-hand cars.

Air fares fell by 19.5% between August and September 2026, compared with a fall of 28.8% between August and September 2025. The upward effect came from European routes where fares fell by less in September 2026 than they did in September 2025.

All domestic, European and long-haul flight prices were collected after the outbreak of the conflict in the Middle East on 28 February 2026.

Prices for roadside recovery saw a large fall this year and a large rise a year ago. Second-hand petrol cars and second-hand diesel cars saw a fall in price this year and a rise in price last year.

Recreation and culture

Recreation and culture prices rose by 0.7% in the month to September 2026, compared with little change a year ago. This led to a 12-month rate of 2.3% in September 2026, up from 1.6% in August.

The largest contribution to the upward effect came from live music where prices rose by 0.9% this year and fell by 8.6% last year. There was also an upward effect from computer game downloads where prices rose by 40.0% this year and 16.1% last year. There were smaller upward contributions from package holidays, cultural events, leisure classes, Blu-ray discs, music downloads, computer software, and televisions.

Housing and household services

The 12-month rate for housing and household services was 4.5% in September 2026, up from 4.3% in August. Prices rose by 0.5% in the month to September 2026, compared with a rise of 0.3% a year ago.

The rise in the 12-month rate between August and September 2026 mainly reflected an upward effect from owner occupiers’ housing (OOH) costs. These rose by 4.0% in the 12 months to September 2026, up from 3.9% the previous month. On a monthly basis, OOH costs rose by 0.6% in September 2026, compared with a rise of 0.5% a year ago.

There was also an upward effect from kerosene, where prices rose by 22.7%, compared with a fall of 1.4% a year ago.

Food and non-alcoholic beverages

The 12-month inflation rate for food and non-alcoholic beverages was 1.3% in September 2026, unchanged from August (Figure 4). The rate was last lower in September 2021, when it was 0.8%. On a monthly basis, food and non-alcoholic beverage prices fell by 0.2% in September 2026, the same fall as in September 2025.

All 11 detailed classes within the food and non-alcoholic beverages division had little effect on the change in the headline rate. However, the consumption segments for other breakfast bakery products; cakes, tarts and sweet pies; tomatoes; and potato crisps had upward effects. The consumption segments for beef, chocolate assortments, and fizzy drinks had downward effects.

Although the annual rate of inflation for food and non-alcoholic beverage prices has remained the same for the last three months, organisations like the Food and Drink Federation expect food inflation to arrive later and persist for longer. This is partly because pressure on household budgets, competition and retailer resistance to price increases have limited manufacturers' ability to pass on higher costs.

Restaurants and hotels

Prices in the restaurants and hotels division rose by 3.8% in the 12 months to September 2026, down from 4.1% in the 12 months to August 2026. On a monthly basis, prices rose by 0.5% in September 2026, compared with a rise of 0.8% a year ago.

The downward contribution came from hotels where prices rose by 2.3% compared with a rise of 3.8% a year ago.

Figure 5 shows the 12-month inflation rates for the Consumer Prices Index including owner occupiers’ housing costs (CPIH) series for all goods and all services, together with CPIH excluding energy, food, alcohol, and tobacco (often referred to as core CPIH). The CPIH inflation rate is added for comparison.

The core CPIH annual inflation rate was 3.1% in September 2026, up from 2.9% in August.

The CPIH all-goods index rose by 3.2% in the 12 months to September 2026, up from 2.7% the previous month. This was the highest rate since September 2023. The largest upward contribution to the change in the annual rate came from energy, particularly motor fuels and kerosene.

The CPIH all-services index rose by 3.9% in the 12 months to September 2026, up from 3.6% in the 12 months to August. The largest upward contribution to the change in the annual rate came from transport services, particularly air fares.

Figure 6 shows the extent to which the distinct categories of goods and services have contributed to the overall annual CPIH inflation rate over the last two years. The contribution of each category to the annual rate depends on the price movement in that category and its weight, which is updated annually.

The contribution from food and non-alcoholic beverages has broadly eased from a recent high of 0.46 percentage points in August 2025. The contribution was 0.11 percentage points in September 2026, the same as August 2026 and the smallest since September 2021.

The largest positive contribution to the CPIH annual inflation rate came from housing and household services. The division has made the largest contribution for the last 27 months, starting from July 2024.

Figure 7 shows the contributions from owner occupiers’ housing (OOH) costs and Council Tax to the annual CPIH inflation rate in the context of wider housing-related costs. The Consumer Prices Index (CPI) differs from the CPIH because it does not include these two components.

The annual contribution from OOH costs rose to 0.70 percentage points in September 2026. This was the fourth consecutive rise between months and followed 16 consecutive decreases. Although the current contribution was larger than the previous month’s, it was smaller than the recent high of 1.31 percentage points in January 2025.

The contribution from electricity, gas and other fuels also rose, to 0.19 percentage points in September 2026. This was the largest contribution from this category since September 2025.

While the Consumer Prices Index including owner occupiers' housing costs (CPIH) is our most comprehensive measure of consumer price inflation, the Consumer Prices Index (CPI) is based on a harmonised methodology developed by Eurostat.

This enables international comparisons to be drawn. It is also used to set the operational inflation target for UK monetary policy, and to uprate working-age benefits and tax credits. More information on the use cases for our consumer price inflation statistics can be found in our Measuring changing prices and costs for consumers and households: December 2023 article.

Figure 8 shows annual CPI inflation for the UK compared with the EU average and selected G7 countries. While the UK CPI is produced on a comparable basis with EU countries, the US Harmonised Index of Consumer Prices (HICP) differs in some respects. More information is available in Note 1 to Figure 8.

The UK's CPI inflation rate of 3.5% was higher than the inflation rates of France (3.4%) and Germany (3.3%) in September 2026.

Figure 9 shows the 12-month inflation rates for the CPI all-goods and all-services series, together with CPI excluding energy, food, alcohol, and tobacco (often referred to as core CPI). The headline CPI inflation rate is added for comparison.

The core CPI annual inflation rate was 2.8% in September 2026, up from 2.6% in August.

The CPI all-goods index rose by 3.2% in the 12 months to September 2026, up from 2.7% the previous month. The rate in September 2026 was the highest since September 2023.

The CPI all-services index rose by 3.7% in the 12 months to September 2026, up from 3.4% in the 12 months to August.

As with the all-items annual inflation rates, the drivers of CPIH and CPI goods and services inflation are the same (except for owner occupiers’ housing (OOH) costs and Council Tax, which are excluded from CPI). The drivers are discussed in more detail in Section 4: Latest movements in CPIH inflation.

Figure 10 shows how each of the main groups of goods and services contributed to the change in the CPI annual inflation rate between August and September 2026.

The rate’s rise in September 2026 reflected upward contributions from six divisions, partially offset by downward contributions from four divisions. The largest upward contribution came from transport, particularly motor fuels. The largest offsetting downward contribution came from restaurants and hotels.

Though the sizes of the contributions differ from CPIH, the main drivers to the change are the same where they are common to both measures.

Figure 11 shows the extent to which the distinct categories of goods and services have contributed to the overall annual CPI inflation rate over the last two years.

The CPIH includes extra housing components not included in the CPI. This can sometimes result in the largest contributions to the annual CPI and CPIH inflation rates coming from different divisions. In September 2026, the largest contributing division to CPI was transport (0.94 percentage point contribution to the CPI rate), while the largest contributing division to CPIH was housing and household services (1.39 percentage point contribution to the CPIH rate). OOH costs made a large upward contribution to housing and household services in CPIH, but these are excluded from CPI.

Annual inflation rate

The most common approach to measuring inflation is the 12-month or annual inflation rate, which compares prices for the latest month with the same month a year ago. In any given month, the annual rate is determined by the balance between upward and downward price movements across the range of goods and services included in the index.

Consumer price inflation

Consumer price inflation is the rate at which the prices of goods and services bought by households rise or fall. It is estimated by using price indices. An overview of the range of indices available and their uses, is available in our Consumer price indices, a brief guide: 2026 and our Measuring changing prices and costs for consumers and households: December 2023 article.

CPIH

The Consumer Prices Index including owner occupiers' housing costs (CPIH) is the most comprehensive measure of inflation. It extends the Consumer Prices Index (CPI) to include a measure of the costs associated with owning, maintaining and living in one's own home, known as owner occupiers' housing (OOH) costs, along with Council Tax. Both are substantial expenses for many households and are not included in the CPI.

CPI

The CPI is a measure of consumer price inflation produced to international standards, and is based on European regulations for the Harmonised Index of Consumer Prices. The CPI is the inflation measure used in the government's target for inflation.

The CPI is produced at the same level of detail as the CPIH in our accompanying Consumer price inflation dataset and Consumer price inflation time series.

Owner occupiers' housing costs

OOH costs are the costs of housing services associated with owning, maintaining and living in one's own home.

RPI

The Retail Prices Index (RPI) and its subcomponents do not meet the required standard for designation as accredited official statistics. In recognition that the index continues to be widely used in contracts, we continue to publish the RPI, its subcomponents, and RPI excluding mortgage interest payments (RPIX).

To view the all-items RPI, please see the data time series section of the Inflation and price indices area of our website. The annual RPI inflation rate was 3.9% in September 2026.

The UK Statistics Authority (The Authority) and HM Treasury launched a consultation in 2020 on The Authority's proposal to address the shortcomings of the RPI. From 2030 (at the earliest), as outlined in The Authority's response to the joint consultation on reforming the methodology of the Retail Prices Index, the CPIH methods and data sources will be introduced into the RPI. Additionally, the supplementary and lower-level indices of the RPI will be discontinued.

Publication of seasonally adjusted price indices

We continue to work towards publishing a seasonally adjusted Consumer Prices Index (CPI) and Consumer Prices Index including owner occupiers’ housing costs (CPIH). We have completed the first iteration of build work. We are now focusing on testing the outputs to fully assure the quality of the data prior to publication and ensuring that the aggregation method best meets user needs.

Introducing scanner data into consumer price inflation statistics

We introduced scanner data for approximately 50% of the grocery market with the index, published on 25 March 2026. Instead of collecting 25,000 prices per month directly from shops by price collectors, we are now using approximately 300 million price points derived from sales of over a billion units of products per month, collected directly from supermarket scanners at the checkouts or online. For the remaining 50% of the groceries market, we continue to manually collect prices in-store and online.

For comparison, we produced the all-items headline rates for February 2026 without using scanner data. Based on locally collected grocery data, the CPIH rose by 3.3% in the year to February 2026, and the CPI rose by 3.1%. These were slightly above the official rates of 3.2% and 3.0%, respectively.

You can find more about this change and how it affects our headline measures of inflation in our Impact analysis on transformation of UK consumer price statistics: January 2026 article.

We also published our Overview of how we use scanner data in consumer price inflation statistics: January 2026 article and our How multilateral index methods help us understand grocery scanner data article, which support user understanding of how we use the data.

Following the Bank of England's response to the proposed changes to the Retail Prices Index (RPI) in 2026 (PDF, 140KB), required under the Statistics and Registration Service Act 2007, this change was included in the RPI released in March 2026. It was also incorporated into the Household Costs Indices (HCIs) published on 28 May 2026.

This followed some changes introduced with the February 2025 consumer price indices in March 2025, as a necessary step towards incorporating scanner data. At that point, the process for aggregating the detailed information changed. Goods and services were allocated into "consumption segments" for different categories of expenditure.

In some cases, we defined these consumption segments to correspond to one "item" for which we track prices over time. However, in cases where more comprehensive source data were going to become available, a consumption segment was set up to include much more than just one item.

There is more information on the use of consumption segments in our Introducing alternative data into consumer price statistics: aggregation and weights article. For simplicity, we continue to refer to "items" in our statistical bulletin and detailed briefing note.

Changes to published microdata

Despite the benefits of introducing scanner data into the consumer price indices, we can no longer publish the price quote data for food and non-alcoholic beverages, alcohol and tobacco (Divisions 1 and 2 of the CPIH and CPI), or the equivalent categories of RPI in our Consumer price inflation consumption segment indices and price quotes dataset. This is because of our data-sharing agreements with retailers.

Instead, we have developed new aggregate output statistics to meet the needs of users. We have improved the granularity and accuracy of our Shopping prices comparison tool. We now provide average prices for more specific product types, such as "Microwave rice" and "Basmati rice". Under the previous, broader definitions (such as "rice, in all forms"), we were unable to produce average prices. Units of measurement are also now included, making comparisons more meaningful and easier to interpret.

We are also publishing regional consumption segment indices and weights, and counts of indicator marker codes (for example, sales and recoveries) that are manually collected as part of the traditional data collection. We first published these from March 2026, with the release of the February 2026 indices. Further outputs will be introduced later in 2026.

More information on the new outputs is available in our Changes to the provision of microdata outputs for consumer price inflation statistics: January 2026 article.

Households and the cost of living

To assist individuals in understanding how the rise in inflation affects their expenditure, we have produced a personal inflation calculator. The calculator allows users to enter the amount they spend across either a reduced or a wide range of categories to produce an estimate of their personal inflation based on those spending patterns.

Our Shopping prices comparison tool shows how the average prices of items have changed over time. Please note that the newly introduced consumption segments for food, drink and tobacco will not have data before 2025 in the tool.

However, the historical average prices for food, drink and tobacco items, which were in the tool before the update in 2025, can be found in our Shopping prices comparison tool data download before the 2025 update.

The tool includes average prices for petrol and diesel. As a result of rounding in the calculations used to produce those series, the average prices may occasionally be slightly different from the petrol and diesel prices released in the statistical bulletin.

On 28 August 2026, we published our quarterly Household Costs Indices (HCIs) for UK household groups bulletin. The HCIs reflect how different types of households experience changing prices, and differ from CPIH and CPI. The CPIH and CPI are based on recognised economic principles and provide an aggregate measure of inflation for household spending in the UK.

The HCIs are official statistics in development and this quarterly bulletin included new estimates for April to June 2026. It was not possible for this September 2026 bulletin to update to 2026 weights in line with the standard methodology for consumer prices. This is because of delays in processing the underlying survey data and the need for further quality assurance. We will update the weights as soon as the data are available to use.

Passenger transport by air

A monthly index for passenger transport by air is included in our monthly Consumer price inflation dataset.

From March 2025, we also began publishing a set of subindices and weights on an annual basis. We updated our Domestic, European and long-haul airfares consumer prices sub-indices: January 2007 to February 2026 dataset on 25 March 2026 with data for March 2025 to February 2026, and a longer historical time series back to 2007.

From March 2026, we also started to release quarterly and annual average air fare prices, again on an annual basis. The analyses are released in the user requested data section of our website.

Classification of Individual Consumption According to Purpose

The Classification of Individual Consumption According to Purpose (COICOP) is the classification that underpins some of the main statistics that we produce. To reflect changes in household expenditure patterns since its inception in the late 1990s, the classification was updated in 2018 (PDF, 1,286KB).

The UK currently uses the version of COICOP introduced in 1999, which was updated in 2017 to add additional detail at the subclass level.

However, we plan to have implemented the updated COICOP 2018 by 2029, as referenced in Section B4 of our Economic statistics plan and Section 5 of our Economic statistics progress report. We will also consider re-referencing the CPI as part of the move to the new classification and will provide users with full details of our plans, once finalised.

For further information, please email cpi@ons.gov.uk.

Weights for 2026 consumer price inflation statistics

In line with usual practice at the start of each year, the expenditure weights used in compiling the CPIH and CPI were calculated using updated spending information.

The first update of weights was implemented with the January indices. The second update was introduced, along with the usual basket update, with the February indices released in March. We published our Consumer price inflation, updating weights: 2026 article and our Consumer price inflation basket of goods and services: 2026 article on 16 March 2026.

The 2026 weights for CPIH and CPI were calculated using national accounts household final consumption expenditure (HHFCE) data for 2024. They reflect our most comprehensive and complete estimate of the latest household spending at the time of the weights update. This is in line with our standard methodology. More information is available in our Consumer price inflation, updating weights articles.

The weights for the RPI were also updated and introduced with the February 2026 index.

Consumer price inflation historical estimates, UK, 1950 to 1988

On 18 May 2022, we published our Consumer price inflation, historical estimates, UK, 1950 to 1988 – methodology and our Consumer price inflation, historical estimates and recent trends, UK: 1950 to 2022 article.

These include new estimates of CPIH and improved estimates of CPI for 1950 to 1988. These estimates (published in response to user need for a longer series) are indicative and are for analytical purposes only. They are not intended for official use and do not constitute part of the accredited official statistics series.

Previously, in December 2018, we published our Consumer Prices Index including owner occupiers' housing costs (CPIH) historical series: 1988 to 2004 article. These series are also not classed as accredited official statistics, reflecting the historical uncertainty around the backcasts.

Methodology information

The consumer price indices are based on prices collected manually from outlets around the country, information collected centrally over the internet and by phone, and, from February 2026, data collected from supermarket scanners at the checkouts or online. The traditionally sourced data used in this release were collected on or around 15 September 2026.

An overview of consumer price statistics is given in our Consumer price indices, a brief guide: 2026. The concepts and methodologies underpinning the indices in more detail are covered in our Consumer prices indices technical guidance.

Information on the users and uses of these statistics, and the characteristics of the different measures of inflation related to potential use, is included in our Users and uses of consumer price inflation statistics: July 2018 update methodology.

Strengths and limitations

In our Measuring changing prices and costs for consumers and households article, we illustrated our approach to the process using three use cases and described how they relate to the measures published and under development.

The three cases refer firstly to the CPIH as our lead measure of inflation, based on economic principles. They also refer to the HCIs as a set of measures that reflect the change in costs and prices experienced by different households, and the RPI as a legacy measure that is required to meet existing user needs. The issues with the RPI are described in our Shortcomings of the Retail Prices Index as a measure of inflation article.

Accredited official statistics

These accredited official statistics were independently reviewed by the Office for Statistics Regulation in July 2017. They comply with the standards of trustworthiness, quality and value in the Code of Practice for Statistics and should be labelled "accredited official statistics".

Revisions and correction of errors policies for consumer price inflation statistics

Our Revisions and correction of errors policies for consumer price inflation statistics are stated separately to highlight the differences between them. Within each policy, there is information on how the policy is applied, in what circumstances users will be notified, and how users will be notified. This policy replaces our previous Revisions policy for consumer price inflation statistics, published in March 2017.

Great British Summer Savings scheme

The UK government's Great British Summer Savings scheme, announced on 21 May 2026, ended on 1 September 2026. It is likely that the reversal of the scheme resulted in price rises for cultural events, historic monuments and cinema admissions, but it doesn't appear that this has had a substantial overall impact on headline consumer inflation.