Consumer price inflation, UK: February 2026

• The Consumer Prices Index including owner occupiers' housing costs (CPIH) rose by 3.2% in the 12 months to February 2026, unchanged from the 12 months to January.

• On a monthly basis, CPIH rose by 0.4% in February 2026, the same rate as in February 2025.

• The Consumer Prices Index (CPI) rose by 3.0% in the 12 months to February 2026, unchanged from the 12 months to January.

• On a monthly basis, CPI rose by 0.4% in February 2026, the same rate as in February 2025.

• Clothing made the largest upward contribution to the monthly change in both CPIH and CPI annual rates; motor fuels made the largest, offsetting, downward contribution.

• Core CPIH (CPIH excluding energy, food, alcohol and tobacco) rose by 3.4% in the 12 months to February 2026, up from 3.3% in the 12 months to January; the CPIH goods annual rate was unchanged at 1.6%, while the CPIH services annual rate eased slightly from 4.3% to 4.2%.

• Core CPI (CPI excluding energy, food, alcohol and tobacco) rose by 3.2% in the 12 months to February 2026, up from 3.1% in the 12 months to January; the CPI goods annual rate was unchanged at 1.6%, while the CPI services annual rate eased slightly from 4.4% to 4.3%.

The Consumer Prices Index including owner occupiers' housing costs (CPIH) rose by 3.2% in the 12 months to February 2026, unchanged from the 12 months to January (Figure 1).

On a monthly basis, CPIH rose by 0.4% in February 2026, the same rate as in February 2025.

The Consumer Prices Index (CPI) rose by 3.0% in the 12 months to February 2026, unchanged from the 12 months to January.

On a monthly basis, CPI rose by 0.4% in February 2026, the same rate as in February 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 January and February 2026. These sum to the change in the annual rate between the latest two months, that is, no change, with the rate remaining at 3.2%.

The contributions to change offset each other, with upward contributions from three divisions and downward contributions from seven divisions. The largest upward contribution came from clothing and footwear. The largest, offsetting, downward contributions came from alcohol and tobacco, and transport.

Clothing and footwear

Clothing and footwear prices rose by 0.9% in the 12 months to February 2026, compared with no change in the 12 months to January (Figure 3). The February figure was the highest recorded since March 2025, when the rate was 1.1%.

On a monthly basis, prices rose by 0.6% in February 2026, compared with a fall of 0.3% a year ago. Prices normally rise in February as the spring product ranges start to enter the shops following the new year sales period. The fall into February 2025 was the first fall between January and February since 2021 when sales patterns were affected by the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic. The price movements reflect changes in the proportion of discounted prices in the datasets. The proportion fell between January and February this year, as usual, contrasting with a rise in the same period last year.

The rise in the 12-month rate was the result of small upward effects primarily from children's and women's clothing.

Alcohol and tobacco

Prices in the alcohol and tobacco division rose by 3.6% in the 12 months to February 2026, down from 4.6% in the 12 months to January. The February 2026 figure was the lowest recorded since February 2022, when the rate was also 3.6%. It was last lower in January 2022. On a monthly basis, prices fell by 0.1% in February 2026, compared with a rise of 1.0% a year ago.

The easing in the 12-month rate reflected a downward effect from alcohol, where prices fell by 1.5% in February this year, compared with a rise of 0.7% in February 2025. Price falls were seen across spirits, wines, and beers this year as a result of price discounting, compared with price rises a year ago.

Transport

Prices in the transport division rose overall by 2.4% in the 12 months to February 2026, down from 2.7% in the 12 months to January. On a monthly basis, prices rose by 0.5% in February 2026, compared with a rise of 0.8% a year ago.

The largest downward effect came from motor fuels, where the average price of petrol fell by 1.6 pence per litre between January and February 2026, compared with a rise of 2.0 pence per litre between January and February 2025. The average price stood at 131.6 pence per litre in February 2026, the lowest price since June 2021 when it was 129.7 pence per litre.

Similarly, diesel prices fell by 1.4 pence per litre in February 2026, compared with a rise of 2.3 pence per litre in February 2025. The average price stood at 141.1 pence per litre in February 2026, down from 146.4 pence per litre a year earlier.

These movements resulted in overall motor fuel prices falling by 4.6% in the 12 months to February 2026, compared with a fall of 2.2% in the 12 months to January. All prices were collected before the outbreak of war in the Middle East on 28 February 2026.

Within transport, this downward effect was partially offset by a small upward contribution from air fares. These rose by 9.2% between January and February 2026, compared with a smaller rise of 5.9% a year ago. The rise into February 2026 was the largest increase between January and February since 2013, when it was also 9.2%. The upward effect came from European routes.

Food and non-alcoholic beverages

Food and non-alcoholic beverages prices rose by 3.3% in the 12 months to February 2026, down from 3.6% in the 12 months to January (Figure 4). The rate in February was the lowest since March 2025, when it was 3.0%. On a monthly basis, food and non-alcoholic beverages prices were unchanged in February 2026, compared with a rise of 0.2% a year ago.

The main downward effect behind the change in the annual rate came from confectionery, particularly chocolate confectionery, where prices fell in the month to February this year but rose a year ago. This was partially offset by small upward contributions from dairy products and vegetables.

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 CPIH all-services index rose by 4.2% in the 12 months to February 2026, down slightly from 4.3% in the 12 months to January. The rate is the lowest since April 2022, when it was 4.1%. The largest downward contribution to the change in the annual rate came from other recreational and personal services, particularly cultural services, and restaurants and cafes. The largest, partially offsetting, upward effect came from transport services, particularly air fares.

The CPIH all-goods index rose by 1.6% in the 12 months to February 2026, unchanged from the 12 months to January. The largest upward contribution to change in the annual rate came from non-energy industrial goods, particularly clothing and footwear goods. The largest downward effects came from energy, particularly motor fuels, and food, alcoholic beverages and tobacco.

The core CPIH annual inflation rate was 3.4% in February 2026, up from 3.3% in January.

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 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 20 months, starting from July 2024. However, the contribution of 1.27 percentage points in February 2026 was down from 1.28 percentage points in January, and the smallest since September 2024.

The contribution from furniture and household goods changed from a small negative to a small positive contribution between January and February 2026. This meant all divisions made positive contributions to the rate in February 2026.

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 continued to slow and was 0.65 percentage points in February 2026. This contribution was the smallest since December 2022, when it was also 0.65 percentage points. It was last smaller in November 2022, when it was 0.64 percentage points. The contribution has decreased for 13 consecutive months from a recent high of 1.31 percentage points in January 2025.

The annual contribution from rents rose slightly from 0.20 percentage points in January 2026 to 0.21 percentage points in February. This is the first rise since the increase between December 2024 and January 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. 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 United States 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 3.0% was higher than that of the EU (2.1%), Germany (2.0%) and France (1.1%) in February 2026. The last time the UK rate was lower than the rate for the EU overall was December 2024.

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.

Core CPI rose by 3.2% in the 12 months to February 2026, up from 3.1% in the 12 months to January.

The CPI all-goods index rose by 1.6% in the 12 months to February 2026, unchanged from the 12 months to January.

The CPI all-services index rose by 4.3% in the 12 months to February 2026, down from 4.4% in the 12 months to January. The rate is the lowest since March 2022, when it was 4.0%.

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 January and February 2026.

The contributions to change between the two months offset each other, with upward contributions from three divisions and downward contributions from six divisions. The largest upward contribution came from clothing and footwear. The largest, offsetting, downward contributions came from alcohol and tobacco, and transport.

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. However, the housing and household services division made the largest contribution to both measures in February 2026, with a 0.58 percentage point contribution to the CPI rate and a 1.27 percentage point contribution to the CPIH rate. OOH costs made an upward contribution to the housing and household services 12-month rate in the CPIH but are excluded from the 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. For an overview of the range of indices available and their uses, please see our Consumer price indices, a brief guide: 2017 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 in our accompanying 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 3.6% in February 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.

Introducing scanner data into consumer price inflation statistics

We have introduced scanner data for approximately 50% of the grocery market with the February 2026 index, published on 25 March 2026. Instead of collecting 25,000 prices per month directly from shops by price collectors, we are 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 have produced the all-items headline rates for February 2026 without using scanner data. Based on locally collected grocery data, the Consumer Prices Index including owner occupiers' housing costs (CPIH) rose by 3.3% in the year to February 2026, and the Consumer Prices Index (CPI) rose by 3.1%. These are 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 in our Impact analysis on transformation of UK consumer price statistics: January 2026 article.

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

This change has been incorporated into the CPI and CPIH for February 2026, and will be introduced in the Household Costs Indices (HCIs), to be published on 28 May 2026. Following the Bank of England response to the proposed changes to the Retail Prices Index (RPI) in 2026 (PDF, 143.6 kB), required under the Statistics and Registration Services Act 2007, the change has also been included in the RPI.

This follows some changes introduced with the February 2025 index released in March 2025, as a necessary step towards incorporating scanner data into the consumer price indices. 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 dataset in its current form in our Consumer price inflation consumption segment indices and price quotes dataset. This is because of our data-sharing agreements with retailers. Price quote data have been discontinued for food and non-alcoholic beverages, and alcohol and tobacco (divisions 1 and 2 of the CPIH and CPI), and the equivalent categories in RPI.

Instead, we have developed new aggregate output statistics to meet the needs of users. We are 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 are first publishing these from March 2026, with the release of the February 2026 indices. Further outputs will be introduced in summer 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.

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 have been calculated using updated spending information. The first update of weights was implemented with the January indices. The second update has been introduced, along with the usual basket update, with the February indices. We published our Consumer price inflation, updating weights: 2026 and our Consumer price inflation basket of goods and services: 2026 articles on 16 March 2026.

The 2026 weights for CPIH and CPI were calculated using national accounts household final consumption expenditure (HHFCE) data for 2024 and 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 have also been updated and introduced with the February 2026 index.

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, that were in the tool before the update in 2025, can be found in our Shopping prices comparison tool data download before the 2025 update.

Please also note that Table 55 in our historical Consumer price inflation dataset, which provided time series of prices for petrol and diesel, has not been published since 19 February 2025, and the two series have been discontinued. Historical average prices are still available from the time series explorer function on our website, using the four-character identifiers CZMK for petrol and CZML for diesel.

On 26 February 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 release included new estimates for October to December 2025. It was not possible for this latest release to update the weights for 2025 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, ongoing quality assurance. Instead, the most recent estimates have been compiled using the weights for February to December 2024. We will update the weights as soon as the data are available to use.

Passenger transport by air

We publish a monthly index for passenger transport by air as part of our Consumer price inflation dataset. We also began publishing Domestic, European and long-haul airfares consumer prices sub-indices and weights on an annual basis from 26 March 2025. This is being updated to include data for March 2025 to February 2026. The analyses are released in the user requested data section of our website.

Classification of Individual Consumption According to Purpose (COICOP)

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

The UK currently uses the version of COICOP introduced in 1999, which was updated in 2017 to add additional detail at the sub-class level, but we plan to have implemented the updated COICOP 2018 by 2029, as referenced in section B4 of our economic statistics plan, and our subsequent 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.

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 normally based on prices collected from outlets around the country, supplemented by information collected centrally over the internet and by phone. The figures in this release use data collected on or around 17 February 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 Manual. This has been rewritten as a series of linked articles and includes the use of alternative data sources more systematically than in the previous version.

A comprehensive source of information on the CPIH, focusing on the approach to measuring owner occupiers' housing costs, is provided in our CPIH Compendium.

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.