U.S. Inflation by Generation · Boomers and Older (65 and Over) vs. All Consumers · Gap Since January 2019

## What this measures

The cumulative change in prices since January 2019 for consumer units whose reference person is 65 or older, minus the same measure for all consumers, in percentage points. Both are Palanor calculations from public BLS data with the same method, monthly.

## Why it matters

It isolates how much more, or less, inflation this age group has faced than the average household because of what it buys. Rent-heavy, car-heavy and medical-heavy baskets each moved at a different pace through the 2021 to 2023 price surge and after it.

## How to read it

Above zero, the group's basket has risen more than the average household's since January 2019; below zero, less. The level of the cumulative rise is in inflation.by_age.65plus.cum_since_2019. Gaps are measured against the Palanor all-consumer basket (inflation.by_age.all.cum_since_2019), not the official CPI, so method differences cancel out.

## How it is built

Prices: 31 CPI-U component indexes (U.S. city average, not seasonally adjusted) from the BLS public API. Weights: each age group's average annual spending by item from the BLS Consumer Expenditure Surveys, Table 1300 (age of reference person). For index year Y the weights are the group's spending in year Y minus 2, the lag the CPI itself uses, price-updated to December of Y minus 1; months are linked within the year and chained across years, and the series is the percent change from January 2019. Housing follows the CPI: owners are priced by owners' equivalent rent and weighted by the survey's estimated rental value of owned homes, so mortgage interest, property taxes and owners' repair and insurance outlays are left out. Health insurance spending is priced by medical care services, the way the CPI allocates premiums to the care they pay for. Vehicle finance charges, cash contributions, and personal insurance and pensions are outside the CPI's scope and are left out. Where BLS suppressed a cell in the 2022 or 2023 table (sampling error of 25% or more, mostly for the under-25 group), it is filled with the group's share of its spending on that item in the nearest published years. October 2025 has no reading: BLS did not collect prices that month.

Ages map to generations by birth year, using Pew Research Center's definitions (Gen Z 1997 to 2012, Millennials 1981 to 1996, Gen X 1965 to 1980, Baby Boomers 1946 to 1964, Silent Generation 1928 to 1945), as of 2024, the latest Consumer Expenditure year in the weights: under 25 = born 2000 or later (Gen Z); 25 to 34 = born 1990 to 1999 (younger Millennials and the oldest of Gen Z); 35 to 44 = born 1980 to 1989 (older Millennials); 45 to 54 = born 1970 to 1979 (Gen X); 55 to 64 = born 1960 to 1969 (the youngest Baby Boomers and the oldest of Gen X); 65 and over = born 1959 or earlier (Baby Boomers and the Silent Generation). The bands are fixed ages, not fixed cohorts: each year's weights describe whoever was that age in the survey year, and the "reference person" is the household member who owns or rents the home.

## What it does not say

It is an average for the age group; within any group, renters and owners, drivers and non-drivers face very different price changes. A gap of a fraction of a point is within what the method's simplifications could move. It does not account for income: a group can face less inflation and still be squeezed more if its income grew less.

## Source

Palanor calculation. Prices: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Consumer Price Index for All Urban Consumers, component indexes. Weights: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Consumer Expenditure Surveys, Table 1300 (age of reference person), 2017 to 2024. Both public domain. Recomputed each month after the CPI release.