These charts rank every part of the Consumer Price Index by how much prices rose in the 12 months to September 2026, and show the five-year change since September 2021.
Home heating oil rose by more than half in a year
The price of home heating oil rose by 58.6% in the 12 months to September 2026. No other large item in the shopping basket came close. Diesel was next among the big items, up 22.0%.
These figures come from the Consumer Price Index (CPI: the official measure of price changes, published each month by the Central Statistics Office). All prices in the basket rose by 4.1% in the year to September 2026. That was the highest rate since January 2024.
Housing and energy lead the ranking
The CSO splits the basket into 13 groups called divisions. Housing, water, electricity, gas and other fuels rose most, by 9.5%. Education services (up 8.9%) and transport (up 7.5%) came next.
No division got cheaper over the year. The CSO says September 2026 was the third month in a row with no annual fall in any division. Food and furnishings were the slowest risers, both up 0.4%.
Three groups did most of the work
Big groups matter more because people spend more on them. The CSO measures how many percentage points each group added to the 4.1% headline rate. Housing added 1.47 points, transport 0.83 and restaurants and accommodation 0.71.
Restaurants and accommodation is the largest division, with almost 20% of the basket weight. So even a modest 3.5% rise there feeds through to the headline figure.
Item by item: the biggest risers and fallers
Inside the divisions, some items moved a lot. Energy and housing costs dominate the risers. The fallers are a mix of insurance, technology and household goods.
Motor car insurance fell by 5.0%, the biggest fall in the insurance group. Mobile phone handsets fell by 4.3%. Butter and other dairy fats fell by 9.3%, the largest fall of any food group in the CSO tables.
Everything is getting dearer at the same rate.
Rates vary widely. In the year to September 2026 heating oil rose by 58.6%, while car insurance fell by 5.0% and food rose by only 0.4%.
Christmas shopping: toys and jewellery up, phones down
Several items people buy at Christmas rose faster than the 4.1% average. Games, toys and hobby items rose by 5.6% in the year to September 2026. Jewellery and watches rose by 6.2%.
- Jewellery and watches: up 6.2%
- Games, toys and hobby items: up 5.6%
- Cinema, theatre and concert tickets: up 5.5%
- Bars and pubs: up 3.8%
- TVs and sound equipment: down 2.2%
- Mobile phone handsets: down 4.3%
Gadgets are the main exception. Phones and sound and TV equipment were cheaper than a year earlier, as were bed linen and rugs, both down 5.6%.
Renters: council rents rose faster than private rents
Rent paid by tenants rose by 6.3% in the year. Inside that, local authority rents rose by 12.7%, while private rents rose by 4.7%. Mortgage interest, paid by homeowners with a loan, rose by 10.2%.
Goods, services and the energy effect
The CSO also groups prices in other ways. Energy products rose by 15.3% in the year. Strip energy out and the CPI rose by 3.0%, so energy pushed the headline rate up by about a point.
| Group | 12-month change |
|---|---|
| Energy products | +15.3% |
| Mortgage interest | +10.2% |
| Tobacco | +7.1% |
| Services | +4.3% |
| All items (headline CPI) | +4.1% |
| Goods | +3.7% |
| CPI excluding housing | +3.7% |
| CPI excluding energy and unprocessed food | +3.1% |
| CPI excluding energy products | +3.0% |
| Alcohol | +0.3% |
Over five years, housing rose by half
Looking back five years shows a different picture. From September 2021 to September 2026, all prices rose by 23.9%. Housing, water, electricity, gas and fuels rose by 52.9%, more than twice the average.
Furnishings (up 3.4%) and clothing (up 6.5%) rose least over five years. Transport rose by 21.7%, a little below the average. Transport prices had already risen by 11.4% in the 12 months to September 2021.
Rise in housing, water, electricity, gas and fuel prices, September 2021 to September 2026
Source: cso.ieHeadline prices since 2021
The headline CPI rose steeply in 2022 and 2023, then levelled off in 2024. It climbed again through 2025 and 2026. The chart uses the CSO index with December 2016 as 100.
The EU measure of inflation, the HICP, rose by 3.8% in the year to September 2026. It leaves out mortgage interest, one reason it is lower than the CPI.
Measured as yearly averages, prices rose by 7.8% in 2022 and 6.3% in 2023. The rate fell to 2.1% in 2024 and 2.2% in 2025. The rate for September 2026 alone, at 4.1%, is almost double the 2025 average.
How to read these figures
- A 12-month change compares September 2026 with September 2025. It says nothing about the price level before that.
- Items with a small weight, such as school transport (up 76.6%), can move a lot without changing the headline much.
- The CSO changed its item groups in January 2026. Some divisions, such as recreation, now cover different items, so long-run comparisons for them are not like for like.
- Your own inflation depends on what you buy. A household heating with oil will have seen a bigger rise than one on gas, which rose 2.3%.
Separate Irish Wire articles cover electricity and gas price changes and inflation since March 2026. This page ranks the categories.
CSO: Consumer Price Index October 2026
CSO: Consumer Price Index November 2026
CSO: Consumer Price Index December 2026, with annual figures for 2026
