By Adam McCann, WalletHub Financial Writer
Americans are still dealing with sky-high inflation, which hit a 40-year high last year. Though inflation has started to slow slightly due to factors like the Federal Reserve rate hikes, the year-over-year inflation rate was still a whopping 4.0% in May. This high inflation is driven by a variety of factors, including the continued presence of the COVID-19 pandemic, the war in Ukraine and labor shortages. The government is hoping its series of interest rate hikes will rein in inflation, but exactly how much of an effect that will have remains to be seen.
Inflation rates differ across the U.S, though. In order to determine the cities where inflation is rising the most – and thus is the biggest problem – WalletHub compared 23 major MSAs (Metropolitan Statistical Areas) across two key metrics related to the Consumer Price Index, which measures inflation. We compared the Consumer Price Index for the latest month for which BLS data is available to two months prior and one year prior to get a snapshot of how inflation has changed in the short and long term.
| Overall Rank | MSA | Total Score | Consumer Price Index Change (Latest month vs 2 months before) |
Consumer Price Index Change (Latest month vs 1 year ago) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Miami-Fort Lauderdale-West Palm Beach, FL | 83.33 | 1.40% | 9.00% |
| 1 | Detroit-Warren-Dearborn, MI | 83.33 | 2.10% | 6.60% |
| 3 | Tampa-St. Petersburg-Clearwater, FL | 78.67 | 1.70% | 7.30% |
| 4 | Phoenix-Mesa-Scottsdale, AZ | 74.60 | 1.50% | 7.40% |
| 5 | Seattle-Tacoma-Bellevue, WA | 59.23 | 1.00% | 6.90% |
| 6 | Houston-The Woodlands-Sugar Land, TX | 46.23 | 1.30% | 4.00% |
| 7 | San Diego-Carlsbad, CA | 45.04 | 0.90% | 5.20% |
| 8 | Denver-Aurora-Lakewood, CO | 41.96 | 0.80% | 5.10% |
| 9 | Baltimore-Columbia-Towson, MD | 40.97 | 0.70% | 5.30% |
| 10 | Atlanta-Sandy Springs-Roswell, GA | 39.68 | 0.50% | 5.80% |
| 11 | Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington, TX | 39.19 | 0.80% | 4.70% |
| 12 | Chicago-Naperville-Elgin, IL-IN-WI | 36.61 | 1.10% | 3.30% |
| 13 | Riverside-San Bernardino-Ontario, CA | 33.63 | 0.80% | 3.90% |
| 14 | St. Louis, MO-IL | 30.95 | 0.60% | 4.20% |
| 15 | Washington-Arlington-Alexandria, DC-VA-MD-WV | 30.46 | 0.90% | 3.10% |
| 16 | Los Angeles-Long Beach-Anaheim, CA | 28.77 | 0.80% | 3.20% |
| 17 | Anchorage, AK | 28.08 | 0.80% | 3.10% |
| 18 | San Francisco-Oakland-Hayward, CA | 26.19 | 0.40% | 4.20% |
| 19 | Philadelphia-Camden-Wilmington, PA-NJ-DE-MD | 22.52 | 0.10% | 4.70% |
| 20 | New York-Newark-Jersey City, NY-NJ-PA | 18.95 | 0.30% | 3.50% |
| 21 | Boston-Cambridge-Newton, MA-NH | 12.50 | 0.00% | 3.60% |
| 22 | Minneapolis-St.Paul-Bloomington, MN-WI | 9.52 | 0.40% | 1.80% |
| 23 | Urban Honolulu, HI | 8.53 | 0.30% | 2.00% |
