What were annual CPI inflation rates in the U.S. for each year 2017–2025?
Executive summary
A precise, year-by-year list of U.S. annual CPI inflation rates for 2017–2025 is a straightforward request, but the reporting provided here does not contain a single, completed table of those nine calendar-year figures; authoritative monthly and annual CPI data are published by the Bureau of Labor Statistics and mirrored by data services such as FRED, and the sources here point readers to those official repositories for exact year values [1] [2] [3].
1. What the user is really asking — and where the official numbers live
The question seeks the calendar‑year annual percent change in the Consumer Price Index (CPI‑U) for each year 2017 through 2025; the Bureau of Labor Statistics is the official source for those annual CPI figures and publishes monthly releases, historical tables and annual summaries that let one compute calendar‑year changes [1] [3] [4].
2. What the available reporting here actually provides
The assembled reporting confirms the BLS remains the authoritative source and that third‑party aggregators (TradingEconomics, USAFacts, USInflationCalculator, Investopedia) reproduce BLS data or estimates from it, report recent headline and core figures for late 2024 and 2025, and note important data caveats such as missing October 2025 BLS collection due to a government shutdown — a caveat that affects how some 2025 monthly comparisons were presented [5] [6] [7] [3].
3. Key recent figures documented in these sources (context for 2024–2025)
Several of the sources report that headline CPI increased roughly in the high‑2% range at the end of 2024 into 2025: the BLS homepage and December summary describe a 2.9%–3.0% 12‑month increase in segments of late 2024/2025 reporting, and multiple outlets report December 2025 headline CPI near 2.7% with core inflation around 2.6%—numbers reproduced from the BLS releases and aggregated services [1] [3] [6] [8] [5].
4. Why a simple table wasn’t published here and how data gaps affect 2025
The sources explicitly flag that October 2025 data were not collected because of a lapse in appropriations, creating missing monthly datapoints that the BLS and private aggregators addressed with caveats and interpolation notes; that disruption means a careful user should consult the BLS monthly release and its historical tables for final, revised annual calculations rather than rely solely on third‑party summaries [7] [3] [9].
5. How to get the definitive year‑by‑year numbers right now
For an authoritative, downloadable table of annual CPI percent changes for 2017–2025, go directly to the BLS Consumer Price Index pages and the BLS PDF news releases and historical tables (the sources here point to those pages) or to FRED (St. Louis Fed) which mirrors CPIAUCSL and lets users compute annual percent changes; those platforms contain the monthly indices and pre‑computed year‑over‑year percent changes necessary to build the requested list [1] [2] [4].
6. Alternate viewpoints, interpretation and a caution on headline vs. core
Reporters and analysts emphasize both headline CPI and core CPI (excluding food and energy) because they tell different inflation stories—third‑party sites and the BLS report both series, and the recent late‑2024/2025 readings show headline and core converging in the mid‑2% range, but the interpretation of trend and policy implications differs depending on which series is emphasized and on how the 2025 shutdown‑related data gaps are treated [5] [8] [3].