In rural Humboldt County, 270 miles north of San Francisco, students at Cal Poly Humboldt are tracking something the federal government doesn't: local inflation—including the cost of cannabis. Their work has produced a rare data set—a homegrown Consumer Price Index (CPI) that reveals inflation in the region is rising faster than both the state and national averages.
The overall inflation rate of 4.4% in Eureka and surrounding cities from 2024 to 2025 was slightly down from last year's rate of 4.5%, according to new student-led research released in May.
The rate is calculated based on the local CPI, which shows changes in prices for major consumer goods and services in Humboldt County, from the price of eggs and meat to housing, and helps calculate the local inflation rate.
For comparison, the statewide inflation rate is 3.3% from February 2024 to 2025, according to the State of California Department of Industrial Relations. It's important to note that the statewide rate measures what consumers pay for goods in urban centers, like San Francisco, Los Angeles, and San Diego. Nationwide, the inflation rate was 2.3% as of April 2025, according to the US Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), which tracks tens of thousands of goods nationally.
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