The Consumer Price Index for All Urban Consumers, or CPI-U, measures price changes for goods and services bought by urban consumers, a group BLS says represents more than 90% of the US population. BLS said the all-items index rose 0.5% in May after a 0.6% increase in April, while the 12-month rate moved to 4.2% from 3.8% in April.
Energy was the main source of the headline move. BLS said the energy index rose 3.9% in May, after increases of 3.8% in April and 10.9% in March. Gasoline rose 7.0% in May and 40.5% over 12 months, while the broader energy index was up 23.5% from a year earlier.
Core CPI, which excludes food and energy because those categories tend to move sharply from month to month, rose 0.2% in May and 2.9% over 12 months, BLS said. The core monthly reading slowed from 0.4% in April. Shelter rose 0.3% in May, medical care rose 0.3%, airline fares rose 2.7%, and motor vehicle insurance fell 1.7%, according to the same release.
BLS also said CPI-U covers urban consumers representing more than 90% of the US population, while rural nonmetropolitan residents, farm families, people in the armed forces and people in institutions are outside the index population. That scope matters when the release is used as a national inflation benchmark.
US monthly CPI change, December 2025 to May 2026. Source: Bureau of Labor Statistics, Consumer Price Index Summary, June 10 2026.
The monthly path in the BLS table shows headline CPI rising 0.3% in December 2025, 0.2% in January, 0.3% in February, 0.9% in March, 0.6% in April and 0.5% in May. Core CPI rose 0.2% in December, 0.3% in January, 0.2% in February, 0.2% in March, 0.4% in April and 0.2% in May.