Canada inflation rate: 3.1% in September 2026

3.1%. Statistics Canada's Consumer Price Index for September 2026 was 170.0 (2002 = 100), 3.1% above the same month a year earlier, released October 19, 2026. On a seasonally adjusted monthly basis prices moved +0.4%. That year-over-year change in total CPI is the figure meant by "the inflation rate" and the one the Bank of Canada targets.

Monday, November 16, 2026, at 8:30 a.m. Eastern time, for October 2026. That is 25 days away. Statistics Canada publishes the CPI once a month, about three weeks after the month it measures, and announces the next date at the bottom of each release in The Daily. This page updates the morning after each release.

2%, the midpoint of a 1% to 3% control range, measured as the year-over-year change in total CPI. The Bank and the federal government renew the framework every five years; the current agreement dates from December 2021, and the Bank says its review is under way with a renewal due in 2026. Because total CPI is noisy, the Bank also watches three core measures: CPI-trim (1.8% in September 2026), CPI-median (1.9%) and CPI-common (2.4%).

Three ways of stripping noise out of total CPI, all published by Statistics Canada and used by the Bank of Canada as its preferred core measures. CPI-trim drops the components with the most extreme price moves each month (the top and bottom 20% by weight) and averages the rest. CPI-median is the price change at the middle of the distribution of component changes, weighted by basket share. CPI-common uses a statistical model to extract the price movement shared across all components. When the three sit close to 2%, the Bank reads underlying inflation as on target even if total CPI is being pushed around by gasoline or food.

Energy and food. In September 2026, all-items excluding food and energy rose 2.1% year over year, while energy rose 19.0% and gasoline 27.8%, and food 2.2%. Total CPI (3.1%) blends all of it by basket weight, so a swing in gasoline shows up in the headline long before it shows up in CPI-trim or CPI-median. The category table on this page shows every component.

Both are indexed to this same CPI, by formulas written into their Acts. CPP rises every January by the change in the average CPI for November to October against the previous November to October (2.0% for 2026, per Service Canada). OAS is adjusted every quarter, comparing the latest three months of CPI with the last three-month period that produced an increase (1.4% for October to December 2026). Neither ever goes down if the CPI falls. The indexation section on this page runs both formulas on the months published so far.

Prince Edward Island, at 5.7% year over year in September 2026, against 3.1% for Canada. The lowest was Ontario at 2.5%. Provincial CPIs differ because of provincial taxes, electricity and gasoline prices, rent and the basket weights specific to each province. The full table is on this page.

8.1% year over year in June 2022, the highest since the early 1980s. For the full year 2022 the annual average was 6.8%. Inflation then fell back through 2023 and 2024 as the Bank of Canada raised its policy rate to 5.00% and held it there until mid-2024. The year-by-year table on this page goes back to 2015.

We do not forecast it. The Bank of Canada publishes its own projection four times a year in the Monetary Policy Report, next due with the rate decision on October 28, 2026, and Statistics Canada's next CPI print on Nov 16 will replace the headline figure here the next morning. What you can do now is check what today's rate means for your own numbers: the indexation section on this page, the OAS and CPP payment pages, and the GIC rates, which are only worth holding if they beat the figure at the top of this page after tax.