Consumer price inflation, UK: February 2025

• The Consumer Prices Index including owner occupiers' housing costs (CPIH) rose by 3.7% in the 12 months to February 2025, down from 3.9% in the 12 months to January.
• On a monthly basis, CPIH rose by 0.4% in February 2025, compared with a rise of 0.6% in February 2024.

• The Consumer Prices Index (CPI) rose by 2.8% in the 12 months to February 2025, down from 3.0% in the 12 months to January.

• On a monthly basis, CPI rose by 0.4% in February 2025, compared with a rise of 0.6% in February 2024.

• The largest downward contribution to the monthly change in both CPIH and CPI annual rates came from clothing, with a further large downward effect in CPIH from housing and household services.

• Core CPIH (excluding energy, food, alcohol and tobacco) rose by 4.4% in the 12 months to February 2025, down from 4.6% in the 12 months to January; the CPIH goods annual rate slowed from 1.0% to 0.8%, while the CPIH services annual rate eased slightly from 5.8% to 5.7%.

• Core CPI (excluding energy, food, alcohol and tobacco) rose by 3.5% in the 12 months to February 2025, down from 3.7% in the 12 months to January; the CPI goods annual rate slowed from 1.0% to 0.8%, while the CPI services annual rate was unchanged at 5.0%.

The Consumer Prices Index including owner occupiers' housing costs (CPIH) rose by 3.7% in the 12 months to February 2025, down from 3.9% in the 12 months to January (Figure 1).

On a monthly basis, CPIH rose by 0.4% in February 2025, compared with a rise of 0.6% in February 2024.

The owner occupiers' housing (OOH) costs component of CPIH rose by 7.5% in the 12 months to February 2025, down from 8.0% in the 12 months to January. This is the first time the annual rate has slowed since November 2023. OOH costs rose by 0.4% on the month, compared with a 0.9% increase a year earlier.

The Consumer Prices Index (CPI) rose by 2.8% in the 12 months to February 2025, down from 3.0% in the 12 months to January.

On a monthly basis, CPI rose by 0.4% in February 2025, compared with a rise of 0.6% in February 2024.

The main drivers of the annual inflation rate for CPIH and CPI are the same where they are common to both measures. However, the OOH component accounts for approximately 17% 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 2025. These sum to the change in the annual rate between the latest two months, that is, the easing from 3.9% to 3.7%.

The slowing in the rate into February 2025 reflected downward contributions from four divisions and upward contributions from five divisions. The largest downward contributions came from clothing and footwear, housing and household services, and recreation and culture.

There were no large, offsetting upward contributions. Alcohol and tobacco prices rose by 5.7% in the 12 months to February 2025, up from 4.9% previously. Duty on non-draught alcohol increased from 1 February 2025 as announced in the Autumn Budget 2024. There was also a small upward contribution from communication, where the price of mobile phone applications (apps) rose this year but fell a year ago.

Clothing and footwear

Overall prices for clothing and footwear fell by 0.6% in the 12 months to February 2025, compared with a rise of 1.8% in the 12 months to January (Figure 3). The February figure was the first negative annual rate since October 2021.

The easing in the annual rate was mainly the result of a large downward effect from garments for women, with small downward effects coming from a range of women's clothing items. There were additional small downward effects from children's clothing, and other clothing and clothing accessories, such as hats and women's scarves.

On a monthly basis, prices fell by 0.3% in February 2025 compared with a rise of 2.1% a year ago. Prices normally rise in February as the spring product ranges start to enter the shops following the new year sales period. This is the first price fall between January and February since 2021 when sales patterns were affected by the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic. The fall reflects an increase in the incidence of discounting in the dataset between January and February this year. Normally there is a decrease between these months.

Figure 4 shows the seasonal price movements for clothing and footwear over the latest five years, setting January equal to 100 in each year.

Housing and household services

The annual inflation rate for housing and household services was 5.3% in February 2025, down from 5.6% in January. On a monthly basis, prices rose by 0.3% in February 2025, compared with a rise of 0.6% a year ago.

The easing in the annual rate between January and February 2025 reflected downward effects from owner occupiers' housing (OOH) costs and, to a lesser extent, actual rentals for housing. OOH costs rose by 7.5% in the year to February 2025, down from 8.0% in January. The January figure was unchanged from December 2024, and together they were the joint-highest observed since February 1992, when the rate was 8.6% in the constructed historical series.

Actual rentals for housing rose by 7.4% in the 12 months to February 2025, down from 7.8% in the 12 months to January. On a monthly basis, rents rose by 0.3% in February 2025 compared with 0.6% a year earlier. The effect came from private rentals.

Recreation and culture

Overall prices in the recreation and culture division rose by 3.4% in the 12 months to February 2025, down from 3.8% in the 12 months to January. On a monthly basis, prices rose by 0.1% in February 2025, compared with a rise of 0.5% a year ago.

The slowing of the annual rate was the result of relatively small downward effects from a variety of the more detailed classes. The largest came from cultural services (particularly from live music admission prices) and recording media. The downward effects were partially offset by an upward contribution from data processing equipment, where prices rose this year but fell a year ago, particularly for computer software.

Figure 5 shows the annual 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 5.7% in the 12 months to February 2025, down slightly from 5.8% in the 12 months to January. There were large downward contributions to the change in the annual rate from housing services, principally from owner occupiers' housing (OOH) costs, and from package holidays and accommodation. These were partially offset by some smaller upward contributions, the largest coming from catering services.

The CPIH all goods index rose by 0.8% in the 12 months to February 2025, down from 1.0% in the 12 months to January. The largest downward contribution to the change in the annual rate came from non-energy industrial goods, principally from clothing and footwear goods.

The core CPIH annual inflation rate was 4.4% in February 2025, down from 4.6% 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 as well as its weight, which is updated annually.

The largest upward contributions to the annual CPIH inflation rate in February 2025 came from the housing and household services, restaurants and hotels, and recreation and culture divisions.

The only downward contribution came from clothing and footwear.

Food and non-alcoholic beverage prices rose by 3.3% in the 12 months to February 2025, unchanged from the previous month. Increases and decreases in prices for food categories offset each other leading to no change in the rate. The monthly increase, at 0.2% in February 2025, was the same as in February 2024.

Figure 7 shows the contribution of 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 contribution of OOH slowed from 1.31 to 1.23 percentage points between January and February 2025. The contribution had previously risen for 13 consecutive months. OOH was the main influence behind the reduced contribution from housing and household services to the annual CPIH inflation rate in February 2025.

While the Consumer Prices Index including owner occupiers' housing costs (CPIH) is our lead and most comprehensive measure of consumer price inflation, the Consumer Prices Index (CPI) is based on a harmonised methodology developed by Eurostat and allows for international comparisons to be drawn. For more information on the use cases for our consumer price inflation statistics, please refer to our Measuring changing prices and costs for consumers and households: December 2023 article.

Figure 8 shows annual CPI inflation for the UK against the European Union (EU) average and selected Group of Seven (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 (see Footnote 1 of Figure 8). The UK's CPI inflation rate of 2.8% was above France (0.9%), Germany (2.6%), and the EU average (2.7%) in the 12 months to February 2025.

Figure 9 shows the annual 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.

The CPI all services index rose by 5.0% in the 12 months to February 2025, unchanged from the 12 months to January. The CPI all goods index rose by 0.8% in the 12 months to February 2025, down from 1.0% in the 12 months to January. Core CPI rose by 3.5% in the 12 months to February 2025, down from 3.7% in the 12 months to January.

As with the all-items annual inflation rates, the drivers of CPIH and CPI goods and services inflation are the same (with the exception of 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 annual CPI inflation rate between January and February 2025.

The easing in the annual CPI rate into February 2025 reflected downward contributions from four divisions, partially offset by upward contributions from five divisions. The largest downward contribution came from clothing and footwear.

Although 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 result in the largest contributions to the annual CPI and CPIH inflation rates coming from different divisions. In February 2025, the largest-contributing division to CPI was restaurants and hotels (0.50 percentage point contribution to the CPI rate) whereas the largest-contributing division to CPIH was housing and household services (1.57 percentage points). OOH costs had a large upward contribution to housing and household services in CPIH but are excluded from 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 significant 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 dataset and accompanying data time series.

Owner occupiers' housing (OOH) 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) does not meet the required standard for designation as an accredited official statistic. In recognition that it 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 3.4% in February 2025.

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 consultation, 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.

Alternative data sources

We are undertaking a programme of transformation across our consumer price statistics, including identifying new sources, improving methods and developing systems. More information about the project and our ongoing transformation plans can be found in our Transformation of consumer price statistics: August 2024 article, released on 6 August 2024. We also published our Consumer prices development plan: updated August 2024 to outline the rationale for our priorities and their potential impact.

As part of the development, from the 26 March 2025 publication of the February 2025 figures, we have introduced improved imputation methods, consumption segments and improved Northern Ireland private rental price statistics. These changes will also be introduced into the Household Costs Indices from February 2025 (to be published on 29 May 2025). We have published an impact analysis on transformation of UK consumer price statistics to provide users with indicative impacts of the improvements from January 2019 to June 2024.

As usual, we welcome your feedback on our work by email to cpi@ons.gov.uk.

Moving from sample items to broader consumption segments

The "All items" Consumer Prices Index (CPI) and Consumer Prices Index including owner occupiers' housing costs (CPIH) series incorporate price information from a wide range of goods and services. From March 2025 onwards, the process for aggregating this detailed information has changed, as a necessary step towards incorporating larger and more granular datasets into CPI.

Goods and services are allocated into "consumption segments" for different categories of expenditure. In some cases, we have currently defined these consumption segments to correspond to one "item" for which the Office for National Statistics (ONS) tracks prices over time. However, in cases where more comprehensive source data are available, or expected to be available in the future, a consumption segment will typically include much more than just one item. For simplicity we continue to refer to "items" in the statistical bulletin and detailed briefing note. More detailed methodological information is available in our Consumer Prices Indices Technical Manual.

Please note that the move from sample items to broader consumption segments means there is an impact on the individual price quotes and lower-level indices we publish from March 2025. These outputs have been updated and presented in an improved format to help users transition to the use of consumption segments and other methodological changes we are making in 2025.

We have published an updated glossary (XLSX, 25KB) which sets out the changes made from March 2025.

Weights for 2025 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, in the February indices. We published Consumer price inflation, updating weights: 2025 and Consumer price inflation basket of goods and services: 2025 on 18 March 2025.

The 2025 weights for CPIH and CPI were calculated using national accounts household final consumption expenditure (HHFCE) data for 2023. This is in line with our standard methodology of using data lagged by two years. It differs from the approach used in 2021, 2022 and 2023, when there were large changes seen in spending patterns because of the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic. Over those years, we adjusted the spending data so that the resulting weights were more reflective of the year immediately before use in consumer price inflation. More information is available in our Consumer price inflation, updating weights articles.

The weights for the Retail Prices Index (RPI) have also been updated for 2025 in line with the practice followed both before and during the pandemic period, with no additional adjustment to the spending data because of any coronavirus effects.

In line with the improvements introduced last year, we now use unrounded weights in compiling CPIH and CPI. The weights prior to 2024 for the CPI and CPIH were rounded to integers as parts per thousand of the all-items indices at the class level (4-digit Classification of Individual Consumption According to Purpose). The RPI continues to be based on integer weights.

Passenger transport by air

While we previously published a monthly index for passenger transport by air, from 26 March 2025 we are also publishing annual price indices and weights split by domestic flights, European flights and long-haul flights. These are being 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 produced by the ONS. The classification has seen a substantial update (PDF, 2.51MB) in recent years, 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.

We will ensure that the new classification is implemented in a comprehensive and reliable manner that considers other ONS priorities around the transformation of our main statistics. To meet this objective, we will aim to introduce the new classification (COICOP 2018) as soon as possible, as part of our wider plans to implement the updated System of National Accounts (SNA25). However, this is likely to be later than the date for implementation in some other countries. We will share our implementation plan in due course.

For further information please contact cpi@ons.gov.uk.

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. However, please note the shopping prices comparison tool has not been updated with February 2025 data on 26 March 2025. This is to allow us to update the tool to account for the changes we are bringing in as part of the planned improvements to our consumer price statistics. For more information on the improvements we are introducing from February 2025 (published in March 2025) please see our Impact analysis on transformation of UK consumer price statistics.

Please also note that table 55 in our Consumer price inflation dataset, which provided a time series of prices for petrol and diesel, is not being published from 26 March and the series have been discontinued. Historic average prices will still be available from the time series explorer function on our website using the four-character identifiers CZMK for petrol and CZML for diesel.

On 27 February 2025, 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, which are based on recognised economic principles, and which 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 2024. It was not possible for this latest release to update the weights for 2024 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 2023. We aim to update the weights in the second quarter (April to June) of 2025.

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 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 the period 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 statistic series.

Previously, in December 2018, we published our Consumer Prices Index including owner occupiers' housing costs (CPIH) historical series: 1988 to 2004 article. This series is also not an accredited official statistic, 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 publication use data collected on or around 18 February 2025.

Our Consumer price indices, a brief guide gives an overview of consumer price statistics, while our Consumer prices indices technical manual covers the concepts and methodologies underpinning the indices in more detail.

Our CPIH Compendium provides a comprehensive source of information on the CPIH, focusing on the approach to measuring owner occupiers' housing costs.

Our Users and uses of consumer price inflation statistics: July 2018 update includes information on the users and uses of these statistics, and the characteristics of the different measures of inflation in relation to potential use.

Strengths and limitations

We illustrated our approach to Measuring changing prices and costs for consumers and households most recently in December 2023 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. Our Shortcomings of the RPI as a measure of inflation article describes the issues with the RPI.

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".