Reality Index
Reality Index

Energy · Single item chart

Gasoline.

Regular unleaded · per gallon · US average retail · all available data

A gallon of gasoline vs. official inflation, 1940–2023
Indexed: 1950 = 100 · What consumers actually paid (retail) compared to overall CPI-U All Items
Gasoline, retail price (EIA Monthly Energy Review Table 9.4, 1950+) CPI-U All Items (BLS, 1947+)

Reading the chart. The retail dollar series is from the EIA Monthly Energy Review Table 9.4, the most authoritative annual gasoline price series (1950 onward). The CPI subindex has gaps in the early 1950s and mid-1960s where BLS did not publish the series consistently.