Where every number on the site comes from, how gaps are filled, and what the local figures can and can’t tell you.
Each item is a U.S. price history built from published data points, listed in the table below with their sources. Several items have no published national price, and their notes say so; treat those as estimates. Between data points, prices are estimated by smooth interpolation (straight-line on a log scale), and year-by-year tables mark those years with ≈. First-class stamps change in steps, so they’re held flat between rate changes, with each rate shown from the start of the year it took effect.
The built-in history runs through September 18, 2026. Twice a day the site collects new readings from the Bureau of Labor Statistics (price indexes, average prices and average hourly earnings) and from FRED (weekly gas prices, weekly 30-year mortgage rates and quarterly median home prices). Each live series is rescaled to match the built-in price on September 18, 2026, and later readings move the price by the same percentage. If a series is unavailable, an item follows a broader index instead. The pages that list prices by item, year and city are regenerated from the same data each time the site is rebuilt, and show the date their figures run to.
“Today’s dollars” use the Consumer Price Index for All Urban Consumers (CPI-U, not seasonally adjusted): annual averages for 1950 through 2019, selected monthly readings from 2020, and each new monthly reading after that.
Local figures cover 32,038 Census places in the 50 states and DC. Each national price is scaled by how costly a place is, relative to the U.S.:
Sixty large cities keep hand-set estimates for parking, and for gas and insurance where the national source is only statewide. Every factor is capped to a sensible range. Housing gaps between places were smaller decades ago, so for earlier years local rent, home prices and property tax move toward the national figure: in 1950 a place keeps 45% of today’s gap, rising to all of it by 2020. Local figures are estimates built from these cost levels, not prices collected in each town.
A salary is moved between years with the CPI-U and between places with a cost-of-living index: housing 35%, gas 6%, car insurance 5% and all other goods and services 54%. It doesn’t account for taxes.
Visitors can ask for a chart that isn’t built in. Those are researched and estimated by an AI model from published price data, labeled as AI-estimated, and can be reported by readers. They aren’t used on the price, year or city pages.
| Item | National price | In a city |
|---|---|---|
| Daycare for one toddler | Child Care Aware of America, Price of Care surveys. Years before about 1990 are estimates. | Scaled by local wages: BLS Quarterly Census of Employment and Wages county averages. |
| A year of public university | College Board, Trends in College Pricing; National Center for Education Statistics, Digest of Education Statistics, for earlier years. | Partly scaled by the Bureau of Economic Analysis regional price parities for the metro area, or the rural part of the state outside metros. |
| Doctor’s visit, no insurance | Estimate; no national self-pay price is published. | Scaled by the Bureau of Economic Analysis regional price parities for the metro area, or the rural part of the state outside metros. |
| Family health premium | KFF, Employer Health Benefits Survey (yearly since 1999). | Partly scaled by the Bureau of Economic Analysis regional price parities for the metro area, or the rural part of the state outside metros. |
| Having a baby in hospital | Peterson-KFF Health System Tracker for recent costs. Earlier years are estimates. | Scaled by the Bureau of Economic Analysis regional price parities for the metro area, or the rural part of the state outside metros. |
| A wedding | The Knot, Real Weddings Study (yearly since 2006). Earlier years are estimates. | Scaled by the Bureau of Economic Analysis regional price parities for the metro area, or the rural part of the state outside metros, and by local wages: BLS Quarterly Census of Employment and Wages county averages. |
| A television | Estimate from historical retail prices; no consistent published series. | Same price nationwide. |
| Cross-country flight | Estimate, guided by Airlines for America’s average domestic round-trip fares. | Same price nationwide. |
| Phone service | Estimate; no single series covers home lines and cell plans. | Same price nationwide. |
| A home computer | Estimate from historical retail prices; no consistent published series. | Same price nationwide. |
| A first-class stamp | U.S. Postal Service, history of domestic letter rates. Each rate is shown from the start of the year it took effect. | Same price nationwide. |
| A dozen eggs | BLS Average Price Data, series APU0000708111 (since 1980). Earlier years are estimates. | Scaled by the Bureau of Economic Analysis regional price parities for the metro area, or the rural part of the state outside metros. |
| A gallon of milk | BLS Average Price Data, series APU0000709112 (since 1995). Earlier years are estimates. | Scaled by the Bureau of Economic Analysis regional price parities for the metro area, or the rural part of the state outside metros. |
| Thanksgiving dinner for 10 | American Farm Bureau Federation, annual Thanksgiving dinner survey (since 1986). | Scaled by the Bureau of Economic Analysis regional price parities for the metro area, or the rural part of the state outside metros. |
| A movie ticket | National Association of Theatre Owners, annual average ticket price; 2025 from The Numbers. | Scaled by the Bureau of Economic Analysis regional price parities for the metro area, or the rural part of the state outside metros. |
| A haircut | Estimate; no national average price is published. | Scaled by local wages: BLS Quarterly Census of Employment and Wages county averages. |
| A pack of cigarettes | Estimate from published state price and tax reports. | Partly scaled by the Bureau of Economic Analysis regional price parities for the metro area, or the rural part of the state outside metros. |
| A night in a hotel | STR (CoStar), U.S. average daily rate, for recent years. Earlier years are estimates. | Partly scaled by the local median home value from the Census American Community Survey (the county’s figure when the place has fewer than 5,000 people). |
| A monthly transit pass | Estimate; no national average fare is published. | Scaled by the Bureau of Economic Analysis regional price parities for the metro area, or the rural part of the state outside metros. |
| Salary | Social Security Administration, national average wage index. Salary is the average yearly wage. | Local wages: BLS Quarterly Census of Employment and Wages county average weekly wage, weighted by employment for places that span several counties. |
| Buying power of $1 | BLS Consumer Price Index for All Urban Consumers (CPI-U). The chart resets to $1.00 at the start of whichever range you pick. | Same nationwide. |
| Payroll tax | Social Security Administration tax rates, applied to the national average wage. The employee’s share of Social Security and Medicare on the average wage, including the 2011–2012 payroll tax cut. | Scaled by local wages: BLS Quarterly Census of Employment and Wages county averages. |
| Cup of coffee | Estimate; no national average price is published. | Scaled by the Bureau of Economic Analysis regional price parities for the metro area, or the rural part of the state outside metros. |
| Pint of domestic beer | Estimate; no national average price is published. | Scaled by the Bureau of Economic Analysis regional price parities for the metro area, or the rural part of the state outside metros. |
| Six-pack of domestic beer | Estimate; no national average price is published. | Scaled by the Bureau of Economic Analysis regional price parities for the metro area, or the rural part of the state outside metros. |
| Big Mac | The Economist’s Big Mac Index, U.S. price (since 1986). Earlier years are estimates. | Partly scaled by the Bureau of Economic Analysis regional price parities for the metro area, or the rural part of the state outside metros. |
| Ham & cheese sandwich groceries | BLS average retail prices for white bread, sliced ham and American cheese. | Scaled by the Bureau of Economic Analysis regional price parities for the metro area, or the rural part of the state outside metros. |
| Tank of gas | AAA and EIA average retail prices for regular gasoline. | EIA state average gas prices, or EIA’s weekly city averages in the ten cities it tracks. Sixty large cities in states without an EIA city average use hand-set estimates. |
| 15-minute Uber ride | Estimate of a typical UberX fare; Uber doesn’t publish a national average. Since the service launched in 2012. | Scaled by the Bureau of Economic Analysis regional price parities for the metro area, or the rural part of the state outside metros. |
| Parking, per hour | Estimate; no national parking price is published. | Estimated from each place’s size and density. Sixty large cities use hand-set estimates. |
| Car insurance | NAIC average auto insurance expenditures. Early decades are estimates. | NAIC state average. Sixty large cities use hand-set estimates, so a city’s price doesn’t fall to its state’s average. |
| Monthly rent | Census Bureau median gross rent, from the decennial census and the American Community Survey. | The local median rent from the Census American Community Survey (the county’s figure when the place has fewer than 5,000 people). Housing gaps between places were smaller decades ago, and the older estimates narrow them accordingly. |
| Monthly mortgage payment | Freddie Mac 30-year fixed mortgage rate; Census and NAR median home prices. The monthly payment on a median-priced home with 20% down on a 30-year fixed loan at that month’s average rate, plus property taxes and insurance. | Scaled by the local median home value from the Census American Community Survey (the county’s figure when the place has fewer than 5,000 people). Housing gaps between places were smaller decades ago, and the older estimates narrow them accordingly. |
| Property tax | ATTOM annual property tax reports and Census data. | The local mean property tax bill from the Census American Community Survey (the county’s figure when the place has fewer than 5,000 people). The mean is used because the published median tops out at $10,000. Housing gaps between places were smaller decades ago, and the older estimates narrow them accordingly. |
| Home internet bill | Estimate; no long-running national average is published. | Partly scaled by the Bureau of Economic Analysis regional price parities for the metro area, or the rural part of the state outside metros. |
| Cable TV bill | FCC reports on cable industry prices through 2015. Other years are estimates. | Partly scaled by the Bureau of Economic Analysis regional price parities for the metro area, or the rural part of the state outside metros. |
| MLB game ticket | Team Marketing Report, Fan Cost Index average ticket (since 1991). Earlier years are estimates. | The nearest MLB team’s average ticket, within 150 miles; elsewhere, scaled by the Bureau of Economic Analysis regional price parities for the metro area, or the rural part of the state outside metros. |
Every item page has its year-by-year table as a CSV file, for example eggs.