AI Analysis: Monthly average retail prices for gasoline and fuel oil, by geography

Executive Summary

This Statistics Canada dataset tracks monthly retail gasoline and fuel oil prices across 19 Canadian geographies from 1979 to 2026, revealing an eightfold price increase from 22.5 to 205.3 cents per litre over nearly five decades. Prices show substantial variability (averaging 92.71 cents/litre with a range of 18.30 to 275.50) driven by fuel type, region, and time period, with premium unleaded gasoline and the national Canada aggregate commanding the highest average prices.

Key Findings

• Gasoline and fuel oil prices rose over 813% between January 1979 (22.5 cents/litre) and the most recent reading (205.3 cents/litre), peaking at 217.9 cents/litre in June 2022.
• The dataset's 46,192 records average 92.71 cents/litre with a median of 86.00 cents/litre, indicating a right-skewed distribution pulled upward by higher-priced outliers.
• Premium unleaded gasoline at self-service stations is the most expensive fuel category, averaging 111.1 cents per litre, followed by self-service diesel and regular unleaded gasoline.
• Among geographies, Canada's national average (123.26 cents/litre) is highest while Edmonton, Alberta has the lowest average price at 81.97 cents/litre.
• Prices span an enormous range from 18.30 to 275.50 cents per litre, with a standard deviation of nearly 40 cents reflecting decades of inflation and market volatility.
• Correlation analysis shows fuel types tend to move together strongly, consistent with their shared dependence on crude oil markets and refining costs.
• IQR-based outlier detection identified specific price spikes and drops across fuel types and time periods that fall well outside typical historical ranges, highlighted in scatter and box plot visualizations.