Your 2025 in prices

Headline inflation ended the year at 2.7%—cooler than the worst of it, but that number hides a split story. Natural gas bills: +10.8%. Electricity: +6.7%. Restaurant meals: +4.1% (and sit-down dining +4.9%). Meanwhile gasoline fell -3.4% and used cars -3.4%—the third year in a row gas got cheaper. So where did your money go? We pulled the official data—BLS CPI, FHFA, EIA, College Board, and more—and wrapped the year. No spin. Just the numbers that define what 2025 cost.

Biggest jumps: Natural gas (+10.8%), electricity (+6.7%), hospital services (+6.6%), fuel oil (+7.4%), food away from home (+4.1%). Biggest drops: Gasoline (-3.4%), used cars (-3.4%), dairy (-0.9%).

The big picture

Over the 12 months ending December 2025, the Consumer Price Index (CPI-U) rose 2.7%. Core inflation (excluding food and energy) was 2.6%. Food overall was +3.1%; energy was +2.3% (even though gasoline fell). So: inflation cooled from the peaks, but it didn’t disappear. And the categories that weigh most on household budgets often ran hotter than the headline.

Where you live

  • Rent (shelter CPI): +3.2% over the year. Rent of primary residence and owners’ equivalent rent both ended around that range. Still the single biggest weight in CPI and still pushing up the index.
  • Home prices (FHFA): U.S. house prices were up 2.2% year-over-year through Q3 2025 (and had been +4.0% earlier in the year). So ownership costs kept rising, but the pace slowed. Median existing single-family home price context: still in the low $400s nationally after a long run-up since 2019.

Wheels

  • New vehicles: CPI for new cars/trucks was up 0.3% over the 12 months—essentially flat. Average new-car transaction price hovered around $49,000; incentives improved and sub-$30k inventory grew, but sticker shock is still the norm.
  • Used cars and trucks: -3.4% over the year. A rare deflation category. Even so, 3-year-old used vehicles crossed $30,000 again in 2025; affordability is still strained by rates and high base prices.
  • Gasoline: -3.4% over the 12 months ending December 2025. U.S. retail regular averaged about $3.10/gal in 2025, down from 2024—the third year in a row gasoline prices declined. December 2025 averaged around $2.89/gal.

Food: grocery vs restaurant

  • Food at home (groceries): +2.4%. Meats, poultry, fish, and eggs: +3.9%. Cereals and bakery (bread, etc.): +1.5%. Nonalcoholic beverages: +5.1%. Dairy: -0.9%. Fruits and vegetables: +0.5%.
  • Food away from home: +4.1%—faster than groceries. Full-service meals: +4.9%; limited service (fast food, etc.): +3.3%. Eating out continued to get more expensive relative to cooking at home.
  • Eggs: Wild year. Avian flu drove big spikes in the first half of 2025 (e.g. USDA reported eggs up ~38% Jan–June vs 2024 average). By year-end, egg prices had come off those highs; December alone saw a large drop. Net: still a poster child for volatility.
  • Beef / meat: Tight supplies and demand kept meat prices firm; the meats–poultry–fish–eggs index was up 3.9% for the year. Ground beef and steak moved with that trend.

Utilities

  • Electricity: +6.7% over the 12 months. One of the steepest increases in the CPI. Data center and AI-related power demand, plus natural gas, are pressuring bills in many regions.
  • Natural gas (piped): +10.8%—the largest increase among major CPI categories. Heating and cooking got meaningfully more expensive.
  • Fuel oil: +7.4% (year-over-year). Another painful one for households that rely on it.

College and childcare

  • Tuition (2025–26): College Board reported published tuition and fees up 2.9% (public 4-year in-state), 3.4% (public out-of-state), 2.7% (public 2-year), and 4.0% (private nonprofit 4-year). The Higher Education Price Index (what colleges pay) rose 3.6% in fiscal 2025—one of the highest readings in years.
  • Childcare: No single official “December 2025” CPI line, but childcare costs have been outpacing general inflation for years. Bank of America Institute had childcare up 5.2% year-over-year as of September 2025—well above the 2.7% headline. Care.com and others put average annual daycare for two kids in the high $20k range nationally, and in high-cost states (e.g. Massachusetts) in the mid-$40s. For many families, it’s the single biggest line item after housing.

Healthcare and insurance

  • Medical care (CPI): +3.2% over the 12 months. Hospital services: +6.6%. Physicians’ services: +1.9%. Prescription drugs: relatively modest. Healthcare spending was projected to hit about $5.6 trillion in 2025—the biggest jump in health spending in years.
  • Motor vehicle insurance: CPI was up 2.8% for the year. Industry reports had average premiums rising double digits in some periods (e.g. ~12% in 2024–25); the CPI measure can lag and smooth. Either way, auto insurance remains one of the most inflated categories since 2020.

Everything else that moved

  • Household furnishings and operations: +4.0%.
  • Recreation: +3.0%.
  • Personal care: +3.7%.
  • Apparel: +0.6%.
  • Airline fares: Up sharply in December (e.g. +5.2% month-over-month); full 12-month change varies by source but travel costs stayed volatile.
  • Communication (e.g. wireless): Down in December; telecom has been a relative soft spot in the index.

What actually got cheaper

Gasoline (-3.4%), used cars and trucks (-3.4%), and dairy (-0.9%) were the main CPI categories that fell over the year. New vehicles were barely up (+0.3%). So: fill-ups and used-car lots gave a bit of relief; almost everything else—especially shelter, utilities, and eating out—did not.

Wages vs prices

Real wages (pay after inflation) improved in 2025 for many workers. The Employment Cost Index had compensation up 3.4% year-over-year in Q4 2025, with real wages and salaries up about 0.7%. So on average, pay slightly beat inflation—but not everyone shared in that. Lower-wage workers and certain industries still felt the squeeze, especially where rent, childcare, and food away from home eat a larger share of income.

The takeaway

2025 was the year inflation “normalized” by the headline—2.7% is close to what the Fed targets. But your actual cost of living didn’t normalize equally everywhere. Rent, utilities (especially natural gas and electricity), restaurants, childcare, and healthcare kept climbing. Homes and tuition didn’t get cheaper. Gas and used cars did. So: if 2025 felt like a mixed bag, the data backs it. This is your inflation wrapped—every major thing that ended the year higher, lower, or flat, in one place.

Sources: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Consumer Price Index (CPI-U), December 2025 release (12-month changes ended Dec 2025); FHFA House Price Index (Q3 2025); U.S. EIA (gasoline and electricity); College Board, Trends in College Pricing and Student Aid 2025; Commonfund HEPI 2025; Bank of America Institute (childcare); USDA ERS (food, eggs); BLS Employment Cost Index, Q4 2025.