Consumer price inflation, UK: May 2025

• The Consumer Prices Index including owner occupiers' housing costs (CPIH) rose by 4.0% in the 12 months to May 2025, compared with 4.1% in the 12 months to April. 

• On a monthly basis, CPIH rose by 0.2% in May 2025, compared with a rise of 0.4% in May 2024. 

• The Consumer Prices Index (CPI) rose by 3.4% in the 12 months to May 2025, compared with 3.5% in the 12 months to April. 

• On a monthly basis, CPI rose by 0.2% in May 2025, compared with a rise of 0.3% in May 2024. 

• The largest downward contribution to the monthly change in both CPIH and CPI annual rates came from transport; the largest, partially offsetting, upward contributions came from food, and furniture and household goods. 

• Core CPIH (CPIH excluding energy, food, alcohol and tobacco) rose by 4.2% in the 12 months to May 2025, down from 4.5% in the 12 months to April; the CPIH goods annual rate rose from 1.7% to 2.0%, while the CPIH services annual rate slowed from 5.8% to 5.3%. 

• Core CPI (CPI excluding energy, food, alcohol and tobacco) rose by 3.5% in the 12 months to May 2025, down from 3.8% in the 12 months to April; the CPI goods annual rate rose from 1.7% to 2.0%, while the CPI services annual rate slowed from 5.4% to 4.7%. 

• The CPIH and CPI inflation rates and indices were each overstated in April 2025 as a result of an error in the Vehicle Excise Duty (VED) component; in line with our revisions policy, the April figures have not been amended but the corrected VED information has been used when producing the May index.

The Consumer Prices Index including owner occupiers' housing costs (CPIH) rose by 4.0% in the 12 months to May 2025, compared with 4.1% in the 12 months to April (Figure 1). 

On a monthly basis, CPIH rose by 0.2% in May 2025, compared with a rise of 0.4% in May 2024. 

The owner occupiers' housing (OOH) costs component of CPIH rose by 6.7% in the 12 months to May 2025, down from 6.9% in the 12 months to April. OOH costs rose by 0.4% on the month, compared with a 0.6% increase a year earlier. 

The Consumer Prices Index (CPI) rose by 3.4% in the 12 months to May 2025, compared with 3.5% in the 12 months to April. 

On a monthly basis, CPI rose by 0.2% in May 2025, compared with a rise of 0.3% in May 2024. 

The CPIH and CPI were each overstated in April as a result of an error in the Vehicle Excise Duty (VED) component. The effect was to add 0.1 percentage points to the headline annual rates. In line with our revisions policy, the April figures have not been amended but the corrected VED information has been used when producing the May index. More information on the error is included in Section 8: Data sources and quality. 

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 costs 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.

Notes:

1. The figures for transport and some higher-level aggregates were overstated in April 2025 as a result of an error in the Vehicle Excise Duty component. In line with our revisions policy, the figures have not been amended. More information is included in the transport text of this section and in Section 8: Data sources and quality.

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 April and May 2025. These sum to the change in the annual rate between the latest two months. 

The slight change in the rate into May 2025 reflected downward contributions from four divisions, partially offset by upward contributions from five divisions. The largest downward contributions came from transport, and housing and household services. The largest upward contributions came from food and non-alcoholic beverages, and furniture and household goods. 

Transport 

Overall, prices in the transport division rose by 0.7% in the 12 months to May 2025, down from 3.3% in the 12 months to April. On a monthly basis, prices fell by 1.8% in May 2025, compared with a rise of 0.7% a year ago. 

The slowing in the annual rate reflected falls in air fares and the price of motor fuels, together with the correction of an error in the Vehicle Excise Duty (VED) series. The latter was overstated in April and the series corrected from May. As is standard practice, the April figure has not been revised. This means that transport had a contribution of 0.36 percentage points to the published CPIH annual rate in April but, without the error, the contribution would have been 0.26 percentage points. In terms of the contribution to change between April and May, transport has a downward contribution of 0.28 percentage points, which would be downward 0.18 percentage points without the error. More background information is included in Section 8: Data sources and quality. 

Air fares fell by 5.0% between April and May 2025, compared with a large rise of 14.9% between the same months in 2024. These movements were influenced by the timing of Easter and the associated school holidays. In 2025, Easter fell in the middle of April, possibly contributing towards relatively high fares, which then fell in May. In 2024, Easter fell in late March, before the April pricing period, which may have contributed to a relatively low April figure, followed by a rise into May.  

There were also downward effects, albeit smaller, from sea, rail and road transport, where again the timing of Easter may have influenced price movements. 

The average price of petrol fell by 2.1 pence per litre between April and May 2025 to stand at 132.4 pence per litre, down from 148.8 pence per litre in May 2024. Diesel prices fell by 2.6 pence per litre in May 2025 to stand at 139.1 pence per litre, down from 156.3 pence per litre in May 2024. These movements resulted in overall motor fuel prices falling by 10.9% in the 12 months to May 2025, compared with a fall of 9.3% in the 12 months to April. 

Housing and household services 

The 12-month inflation rate for housing and household services was 6.9% in May 2025, down from 7.0% in April. On a monthly basis, prices rose by 0.3% in May 2025, compared with a rise of 0.4% a year ago. 

The easing in the 12-month rate between April and May 2025 principally reflected a downward effect from owner occupiers' housing (OOH) costs, which rose by 6.7% in the year to May 2025. This was down from 6.9% in the year to April 2025, and was the lowest 12-month rate seen since May 2024, when the rate was also 6.7%. 

Food and non-alcoholic beverages 

The downward contributions from other divisions were partially offset by an upward effect from food and non-alcoholic beverages, where prices rose by 4.4% in the 12 months to May 2025, up from 3.4% in the 12 months to April. The May 2025 figure was the highest recorded since February 2024, when the rate was 5.0% (Figure 3). 

On a monthly basis, food and non-alcoholic beverages prices rose by 0.7% in May 2025, compared with a fall of 0.3% a year ago.

There were upward effects to the change in the rate from 7 of the 11 food and non-alcoholic beverages classes, with the largest coming from the sugar, jam, syrups, chocolate and confectionery class. Within this, prices of chocolate, confectionery and ice cream rose between April and May this year but fell between the same two months a year ago. There was also a small upward effect from meat, where, on a monthly basis, prices rose by more in May 2025 than May 2024.

Furniture and household goods

Prices of furniture and household goods overall rose by 0.8% in the 12 months to May 2025. This is the highest rate since December 2023, but it is well below the peaks seen in 2022 (Figure 4). The latest rate compares with a fall of 0.5% in the 12 months to April 2025. On a monthly basis, prices rose by 1.5% in May 2025, compared with a rise of 0.2% a year ago.

The main upward contributions to the rise in the 12-month rate came from household appliances, and furniture and furnishings. In the former class, prices of items such as fridge freezers and vacuum cleaners rose in May 2025 but fell a year ago. The movement relates to the timing of sales, with the prices of some products recovering from sale this year but entering a sales period a year ago. In the furniture class, prices of bedroom furniture rose by more in May 2025 than May 2024. Again, the movement relates to recoveries from sale though there were also some general price rises for these products.

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 goods index rose by 2.0% in the 12 months to May 2025, up from 1.7% in the 12 months to April. This is the highest rate since November 2023 when it was also 2.0%. It was last higher in October 2023. The largest upward contributions to the change in the annual rate came from non-energy industrial goods (particularly household goods), and processed and non-processed food.

The CPIH all services index rose by 5.3% in the 12 months to May 2025, down from 5.8% in the 12 months to April. This is the lowest rate seen since January 2023. The largest downward contributions to the change in the annual rate came from transport services (particularly air fares) and services for personal transport equipment (with the correction of the Vehicle Excise Duty series in May).

The core CPIH annual inflation rate was 4.2% in May 2025, down from 4.5% in April.

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 contributions from all divisions to the annual CPIH inflation rate were positive in May 2025, with the exception of clothing and footwear. By far, the largest positive contribution came from housing and household services, which contributed 2.04 percentage points, down slightly from 2.08 percentage points in April.

The contribution from food and non-alcoholic beverages rose from 0.31 to 0.40 percentage points between April and May 2025. This was the largest contribution from this division since February 2024. The contribution from furniture and household goods, at 0.04 percentage points, was the largest since January 2024, when it was also 0.04 percentage points. The contribution was last larger in December 2023.

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, to 1.11 percentage points in May 2025, following a recent high of 1.31 percentage points in January 2025.

There was a small reduction in the contribution from actual rentals for housing, while other components’ contributions were little changed in May.

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. 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 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 to Figure 8). The UK's CPI inflation rate of 3.4% was above the first (or "flash") estimate of inflation for France (0.6%) and Germany (2.1%) in the 12 months to May 2025.

Notes:

1. The figures for transport and some higher-level aggregates were overstated in April 2025 as a result of an error in the Vehicle Excise Duty component. In line with our revisions policy, the figures have not been amended. More information is included in the transport text of Section 3: Notable movements in prices and in Section 8: Data sources and quality.

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. 

The CPI all goods index rose by 2.0% in the 12 months to May 2025, up from 1.7% in the 12 months to April. This is the highest rate since November 2023 when it was also 2.0%. It was last higher in October 2023.

The CPI all services index rose by 4.7% in the 12 months to May 2025, down from 5.4% in the 12 months to April.

Core CPI rose by 3.5% in the 12 months to May 2025, down from 3.8% in the 12 months to April. 

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 April and May 2025.

The slight change in the rate into May 2025 reflected downward contributions from four divisions, partially offset by upward contributions from five divisions. The largest downward contribution came from transport. The largest, partially offsetting, upward contributions came from food and non-alcoholic beverages, and furniture and household goods.

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 sometimes result in the largest contributions to the annual CPI and CPIH inflation rates coming from different divisions. However, in May 2025, housing and household services was the largest-contributing division to both measures, with a 0.97 percentage point contribution to the CPI rate and 2.04 percentage points to the CPIH rate. OOH costs had a large upward contribution to housing and household services 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 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 4.3% in May 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.

Error in the Vehicle Excise Duty component of consumer prices inflation 

Since publication of the April 2025 figures on 21 May, an error has been discovered in the licensed vehicles data provided by the Department for Transport and used to calculate the April Vehicle Excise Duty (VED) component.

The incorrect data overstated the number of vehicles subject to VED rates applicable in the first year of registration. This had the effect of overstating the headline Consumer Prices Index including owner occupiers' housing costs (CPIH), Consumer Prices Index (CPI) and Retail Prices Index (RPI) 12-month rates for April 2025 by 0.1 percentage points. The correct data have now been used to create the VED index for May.

In line with the established revisions policies for those series, the April figures have not been revised. This means that the monthly rates for May for CPIH, CPI and RPI are each calculated using the published April data and that VED has had a downward effect on the change in the rate between the published April 2025 data and May 2025. More information on the error is included in the correction notice and the Impact of vehicle excise duty on headline UK consumer price inflation, April 2025 table in Consumer price inflation, UK: April 2025.

Alternative data sources 

We are undertaking a programme of transformation across our consumer price statistics, including identifying new sources, improving methods and developing systems. Our Transformation of consumer price statistics: August 2024 article, published on 6 August 2024, contains more information about the project and our ongoing transformation plans. 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 have also been introduced into the Household Costs Indices from February 2025 (published on 29 May 2025). We have published an Impact analysis on transformation of UK consumer price statistics: January 2025 to provide users with indicative impacts of the improvements from January 2019 to June 2024. 

As usual, we welcome your feedback on our work. To contact us, please email cpi@ons.gov.uk. 

Moving from sample items to broader consumption segments 

The "All items" CPI and CPIH series incorporate price information from a wide range of goods and services. From March 2025, the process for aggregating this detailed information has changed, as a necessary step towards incorporating larger and more granular datasets into the consumer price indices. 

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 are expected to be available in the future, a consumption segment typically includes 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, 2019. 

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 published from March 2025 in our Consumer price inflation consumption segment indices and price quotes dataset. 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 have published an updated glossary (XLSX, 25KB), which sets out the changes made from March 2025. 

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, drinks and tobacco will not have data before 2025 in the tool. However, the historical average prices for food, drinks and tobacco items, that were on 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 Consumer price inflation tables dataset, which provided time series of prices for petrol and diesel, has not been published from 26 March 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 29 May 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. 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 January to March 2025. The data in this release have been updated using 2024 weights leading to some minor revisions in previously published comparisons. 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 aim to update the weights in due course. 

Passenger transport by air 

While we previously published a monthly index for passenger transport by air, from 26 March 2025, we are also publishing domestic, European and long-haul airfares consumer prices sub-indices and weights on an annual basis. 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 as soon as we can. 

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

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 were calculated using updated spending information. The first update of weights was implemented with the January indices. The second update was introduced, along with the usual basket update, with the February indices released in March. 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 RPI were also updated for 2025 in line with the practice followed both before and during the pandemic period. This was with no additional adjustment to the spending data because of any coronavirus (COVID-19) 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 COICOP). The RPI continues to be based on integer weights. 

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 statistics 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. 

Pre-release access

The Bank of England was granted exceptional pre-release access to an estimate of consumer price inflation data at 9:00am on Monday 16 June 2025 so that the data were available for the Monetary Policy Committee meeting held on that day. The letters requesting and agreeing to pre-release are available in the Exchange of letters between the Bank of England and the Office for National Statistics for exceptional pre-release access to Labour Market Statistics and Consumer Price Index Statistics.

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 13 May 2025. 

Our Consumer price indices, a brief guide: 2017 gives an overview of consumer price statistics, while our Consumer Prices Indices Technical Manual, 2019 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 related 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".