December 3rd, 2024 | Posted in Data & Insights, Tools
This is an interactive Canadian inflation tracker, showing price changes for various items (housing, food, transportation, etc.) from 1978 to 2024 — all based on data from Statistics Canada.
We can use this tool to answer questions like:
- How much higher are today’s prices versus pre-pandemic prices?
- What has the average inflation rate been over the last 1 / 5 / 10 years?
- Which specific price items — housing, food, transportation, etc. — have had the highest price inflation?
- By how much would Canadian prices need to drop to get back to “normal”?
From what I typically see in the media, inflation storylines are too focused on short-term price comparisons (changes versus the previous month or previous year). This Canadian inflation tracker seeks to show the cumulative change in prices over longer time periods — for example, comparing today’s prices for housing and food versus prices before the COVID-19 pandemic.
This tool helps us to see that the “war on inflation” isn’t won simply due to the latest monthly data being +2% versus the previous year. Periods of high inflation (such as the annual inflation rates of +5% to 10% that we saw during the pandemic) require a long period of very low inflation (or even deflation) to balance out to a normalized level of prices.
Without further ado, you can use the tool below to explore the inflation dataset. Use the drop-down menus to change the time period and the specific items to analyse (there are 46 different items which can be tracked).
Canadian Inflation Tracker
Select Items to Compare
| Item | Total % Change | Average Annual % Change |
|---|
Note: you can click the button above to generate a custom link which saves the specific time period / item choices that you selected. You can use this to easily save or share the data view that you created.
Current Prices vs. Pre-Pandemic Prices — Full Data Table
The table below shows changes in Canadian prices comparing October 2024 versus December 2019 prices (i.e., current prices versus pre-pandemic prices). There are 46 specific items shown, and the table is sorted to show the largest changes first.
For example: the price of fats & oils (within the food category) had the highest inflation, with prices rising by 77.7% since December 2019.
| Item Name | Category | Total % Change (Oct-2024 vs. Dec-2019) | Avg. Annual % Change |
|---|---|---|---|
| Fats and oils | Food | 77.7% | 12.6% |
| Mortgage interest cost | Housing | 50.3% | 8.8% |
| Pasta | Food | 43.8% | 7.8% |
| Condiments / spices | Food | 38.7% | 7.0% |
| Beef | Food | 36.2% | 6.6% |
| Homeowners' home and mortgage insurance | Housing | 35.7% | 6.5% |
| Butter | Food | 34.8% | 6.4% |
| Gasoline | Transportation | 32.7% | 6.0% |
| Poultry | Food | 31.2% | 5.8% |
| Traveller accommodation | Other | 29.3% | 5.5% |
| Meat | Food | 28.5% | 5.3% |
| Owned accommodation | Housing | 28.0% | 5.2% |
| Shelter (avg.) | Housing | 26.3% | 5.0% |
| Dairy products / eggs | Food | 25.8% | 4.9% |
| Food (avg.) | Food | 25.4% | 4.8% |
| Coffee / tea | Food | 25.3% | 4.8% |
| Rent | Housing | 25.0% | 4.7% |
| Rented accommodation | Housing | 24.7% | 4.7% |
| Food purchased from restaurants | Food | 24.5% | 4.6% |
| Homeowners' replacement cost | Housing | 24.1% | 4.6% |
| Dental care services | Health | 23.8% | 4.5% |
| Milk | Food | 23.5% | 4.5% |
| Housekeeping services | Other | 23.2% | 4.4% |
| Sugar | Food | 22.3% | 4.2% |
| Flour | Food | 22.1% | 4.2% |
| Ice cream | Food | 20.9% | 4.0% |
| Vegetables | Food | 19.6% | 3.8% |
| Refrigerators and freezers | Other | 19.4% | 3.7% |
| Water / fuel / electricity | Housing | 19.2% | 3.7% |
| Pork | Food | 19.1% | 3.7% |
| Property taxes and other special charges | Housing | 19.1% | 3.7% |
| Health and personal care | Health | 18.8% | 3.6% |
| Purchase of vehicles | Transportation | 18.7% | 3.6% |
| All-items (avg.) | All | 18.6% | 3.6% |
| Rice | Food | 17.7% | 3.4% |
| Furniture | Other | 16.8% | 3.3% |
| Alcohol / tobacco / cannabis | Other | 16.5% | 3.2% |
| Homeowners' maintenance and repairs | Housing | 16.4% | 3.2% |
| Durable goods | Other | 13.9% | 2.7% |
| Fish | Food | 13.4% | 2.6% |
| City bus and subway transportation | Transportation | 8.9% | 1.8% |
| Fresh fruit | Food | 7.6% | 1.5% |
| Household operations / furnishings and equipment | Housing | 6.8% | 1.4% |
| Clothing and footwear | Other | -0.3% | -0.1% |
| Child care services | Other | -24.5% | -5.7% |
| Telephone services | Housing | -35.3% | -8.6% |
Data, Sources, and Notes
Source: StatCan Consumer Price Index, monthly, not seasonally adjusted
If you liked this post, you may be interested in some of my other tools and data essays:
- Free spreadsheets and tools for budgeting, investment portfolio tracking, and more
- Tracking Canadian Housing Market Affordability (1999 to 2024)
- The Wealth of Nations: income, cost of living, and purchasing power for 110 countries
- Investment returns by asset class (1985 to 2024)
- US stock market returns — a history from the 1870s to 2023
That’s all for now! Thanks for joining me on this data deep dive 🧐. Feel free to drop any comments or questions below.
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Header image credit: Zara Picken
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