Consumer Price Index, CPI-U · Medical care, personal care and other goods and services, U.S. city average, seasonally adjusted
How have prices changed for medical care and personal care?
The month ended : of the 11 lines, the change over a year was largest for Tobacco and smoking products, up 6.4%, and smallest for Medicinal drugs, down 3.4%.
Consumer price index for medical care, personal care and other goods and services, medical care, each month
- Medical care commodities402.8371.5 to 418.5
- Medical care services655.4500.4 to 655.4
- Professional medical services457.5373.1 to 457.7
- Hospital and related services110.773.2 to 110.7
- Medicinal drugs131.3121.8 to 137.0
Consumer price index for medical care, personal care and other goods and services, personal care and other goods, each month
- Personal care304.7225.3 to 304.7
- Other goods151.3109.2 to 151.3
- Tobacco and smoking products112.161.2 to 112.1
- Personal care products184.8158.8 to 185.5
- Other personal services614.5416.6 to 617.1
- Other personal goods90.870.1 to 90.8
Each row is one line of the page over the last ten years, one month to a point, on a scale shared by the rows of the tab, with its newest value and its range printed beside it and a dashed line at zero. A gap is a month with no value. Pointing at the chart shows the month and the value.
Observed .
Right now
Over a year to September 2026, of the 11 lines on this page the change was largest for Tobacco and smoking products, up 6.4%, and smallest for Medicinal drugs, down 3.4%.
Of these lines, 9 rose, 2 fell and 0 did not change over the year (ours, from the published values).
By lineOver a year, ours
Consumer price index for medical care, personal care and other goods and services, change over a year, by line
- Medical care
- Personal care and other goods
Each bar is the change in one line over a year, the largest first, with its rank at the left and its newest value under the figure. A line with its own page links it from its name. A change below zero runs to the left of the zero line. The colour says which section of the page a line is in.
Observed .
Consumer price index for medical care, personal care and other goods and services, change over a year in each month
| Line | ||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Medical care commodities | – | +1.1 | +1.5 | +0.3 | +0.1 | +0.3 | −0.5 | −1.8 | −2.1 | −2.7 | −2.7 | −3.3 |
| Medical care services | – | +3.3 | +3.5 | +3.9 | +4.1 | +3.7 | +3.2 | +3.6 | +2.9 | +2.7 | +2.5 | +2.5 |
| Professional medical services | – | +2.2 | +2.5 | +3.4 | +3.7 | +4.1 | +4.0 | +4.5 | +3.8 | +3.4 | +3.2 | +3.4 |
| Hospital and related services | – | +6.0 | +6.7 | +6.9 | +7.6 | +6.4 | +5.5 | +5.8 | +5.5 | +5.4 | +5.5 | +5.4 |
| Medicinal drugs | – | +1.0 | +1.5 | −0.1 | −0.4 | −0.2 | −0.9 | −2.2 | −2.3 | −2.7 | −2.7 | −3.4 |
| Personal care | – | +3.3 | +3.7 | +5.4 | +4.5 | +3.1 | +3.8 | +4.4 | +4.2 | +3.8 | +3.8 | +3.7 |
| Other goods | – | +3.1 | +3.6 | +4.5 | +4.2 | +4.4 | +4.6 | +4.5 | +3.9 | +4.2 | +4.2 | +3.8 |
| Tobacco and smoking products | – | +6.9 | +6.8 | +8.5 | +8.0 | +7.4 | +7.6 | +7.8 | +6.5 | +6.7 | +6.3 | +6.4 |
| Personal care products | – | +0.7 | +1.5 | +1.9 | +1.7 | +2.2 | +2.7 | +2.6 | +2.7 | +3.1 | +2.9 | +2.1 |
| Other personal services | – | +4.9 | +4.6 | +8.3 | +6.5 | +2.4 | +4.7 | +6.5 | +5.7 | +4.5 | +4.4 | +5.1 |
| Other personal goods | – | +0.8 | +2.5 | +3.8 | +2.8 | +4.0 | +3.3 | +2.4 | +1.4 | +1.2 | +3.6 | +2.9 |
Each chip is one month's change from the same month a year earlier. The mark in its middle is zero: a fill to the right of it is a rise and a fill to the left a fall. A longer, brighter fill is a larger change, in five steps up to 6.5 and over. Every chip prints its figure and sign. A dash is a month with no figure.
Observed .
Understanding medical and personal care
Where it stands today
The largest change over a year was Tobacco and smoking products, up 6.4%, in September 2026.
What do the lines of this page measure?
These are the consumer price indexes for medical care, personal care and other goods and services, from the Consumer Price Index for All Urban Consumers (CPI-U), U.S. city average. The Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) publishes them each month, about two weeks after the month ends, seasonally adjusted. Every line is an index that BLS scales to 100 in a base period of its own, so lines are compared by their change, not by their level.
Read more
The lines are the parts of medical care, then personal care and the other goods and services.
What 500metrics adds: the change over a year of every line, ranked across the page; the last ten years of every line as rows of small charts; and a table of the change over a year in each of the last twelve months. Every line has a page of its own with the history since its series begins.
The numbers behind the chart
What is the latest value of each line?11 lines, in the sections of the page
| Line | Section | Month | Value | Change over a year | Rank |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Medical care commodities | Medical care | 402.8 | −3.3% | 10 | |
| Medical care services | Medical care | 655.4 | +2.5% | 8 | |
| Professional medical services | Medical care | 457.5 | +3.4% | 6 | |
| Hospital and related services | Medical care | 110.7 | +5.4% | 2 | |
| Medicinal drugs | Medical care | 131.3 | −3.4% | 11 | |
| Personal care | Personal care and other goods | 304.7 | +3.7% | 5 | |
| Other goods | Personal care and other goods | 151.3 | +3.8% | 4 | |
| Tobacco and smoking products | Personal care and other goods | 112.1 | +6.4% | 1 | |
| Personal care products | Personal care and other goods | 184.8 | +2.1% | 9 | |
| Other personal services | Personal care and other goods | 614.5 | +5.1% | 3 | |
| Other personal goods | Personal care and other goods | 90.8 | +2.9% | 7 |
The table scrolls sideways; the first column stays in place.
What do these figures leave out, and how are they cited?Limits, dates and how to cite
What this number cannot tell you
- An index measures the change of prices, not the prices themselves. The base period differs from line to line, so the level of one line cannot be set beside the level of another: only the changes can.
- The lines overlap. BLS builds the items from one another, so a line can be a part of another line of this page or of another inflation page. The lines do not add up to a total.
- The values are seasonally adjusted, and BLS revises the adjusted values of the last five years each February. The change over 12 months that BLS headlines is worked out from values that are not seasonally adjusted, and can differ from the change on this page.
- BLS did not collect prices for October 2025 because of the lapse in appropriations. Where BLS publishes no value for that month, the charts show a gap.
- The changes and the ranks are ours, worked out from the values BLS publishes; a change is in percent.
Observed . Checked .
How to cite this
U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Consumer Price Index, Medical care, personal care and other goods and services, U.S. city average, seasonally adjusted, through September 2026. Compiled by 500metrics, "How have prices changed for medical care and personal care?", https://500metrics.com/medical-and-personal-inflation.
Can the data be downloaded?medical-and-personal-inflation.csv
Download the last ten years of every line as CSV: 1,320 rows, to , 85,234 bytes.
Our text and compilation: CC BY 4.0.
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