May 11, 2025

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 in March students collect hundreds of local prices. We calculate the inflation rate is 4.4 percent in Eureka from 2024 to 2025. 

Two years ago we 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 2024 and 2025. This allows us to construct an inflation rate from 2023 to 2024 and from 2024 to 2025.

The CPI is a weighted average of eight categories. Prices increased the most in the Medical Care sector and the inflation rate was 8.4 percent. Apparel experienced inflation of 6.4 percent while inflation was 5.6 percent in the Housing sector. At the other end, the Recreation sector had the lowest inflation rate at 0.1 percent, and Transportation and Other Goods and Services had low inflation of 1.5 percent and 2.2 percent, respectively. 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 rose a very small 0.2 percent on average.

For comparison, the State of California had an inflation rate of 3.3 percent from February 2024 to 2025. The US inflation rate was 2.3 percent from March 2024 to 2025. 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.