Press Release: Eureka CPI Project 2024

The Eureka Consumer Price Index (CPI) is a tool created by the Cal Poly Humboldt Economics Department to show changes in prices for major consumer goods in Humboldt County. Each spring semester students collect hundreds of local prices. We calculate the inflation rate is 4.2 percent in Eureka from 2023 to 2024.

This year we are happy to present the inflation results for our new Eureka CPI. We have greatly expanded the number of prices we collect from 287 to 529. This should ensure greater accuracy and is more consistent with the official CPI as reported by the US Bureau of Labor Statistics. We expanded the number of prices in spring, 2023, and we collected the same prices in spring, 2024. This allows us to construct an inflation rate from 2023 to 2024.

The inflation rate in Eureka is 4.2 percent using the expanded number of items. For comparison, the inflation rate is 2.3 percent using the old list of items. We continue to report the old series for continuity purposes, but we expect the new series to be the more accurate measure of prices.

The CPI is a weighted average of eight categories. Prices increased the most in the Medical Care sector and the inflation rate was 8.6 percent. Transportation and Other Goods and Services also experienced inflation over 7 percent. At the other end, the Apparel sector had the lowest inflation rate at 1.1 percent, and Housing and Recreation had low inflation at just over two percent. Moderate inflation was experienced by the Food and Beverages and the Education and Communication sectors.

We also collect consumer cannabis prices based on a limited number of items such as flower, wax cartridges, gummies and pre-rolls. Overall cannabis prices fell 16.3 percent on average.

For comparison, the State of California has an inflation rate of 3.3 percent from 2023 to 2024, while Eureka’s is 4.2 percent. There are many possible explanations for the differences, but it’s important to keep in mind that the California inflation rate measures prices from major city centers and urban areas, while Eureka is a small rural town. The US inflation rate was 3.5 percent from 2023 to 2024.