AI Analysis: Consumer Price Index, monthly, not seasonally adjusted

Executive Summary

Statistics Canada's CPI dataset (Table 18100004) tracks 358 product categories across 188,744 monthly records from 1914 to 2026, documenting a 2,726.7% rise in the All-items index from 6.0 to 169.6 over 112 years. Price changes vary dramatically by category—from 427.80 for fuel oil to 12.20 for digital computing equipment—while 27 months of extreme outliers highlight periods of major economic disruption like wartime inflation and oil shocks.

Key Findings

• The All-items CPI rose 2,726.7% from 6.0 in January 1914 to 169.6 in May 2026, reflecting over a century of sustained inflation.
• CPI values across all 188,744 records range from 3.1 to 477.0, with a mean of 89.71 and median of 93.60, indicating a slight left skew.
• 'Fuel oil and other fuels' has the highest recent CPI value at 427.80, while 'Digital computing equipment and devices' has the lowest at 12.20, a spread reflecting sharply divergent inflation and deflation trends.
• The middle 50% of all CPI values fall between 60.00 and 115.00, with a standard deviation of 47.52 showing considerable overall spread.
• Analysis of month-over-month changes in the All-items index found an average change of 0.25% with 0.69% typical variation, and identified 27 extreme outlier months likely tied to major economic events.
• The dataset spans 358 distinct product and service categories, with 'All-items' being the most recorded (1,349 entries) as the headline inflation measure.
• Multiple base-year systems (e.g., 1992=100, 2002=100, 2017=100, 202404=100) are used throughout the series, reflecting periodic methodology rebasing by Statistics Canada.