Tampa Bay Among 10 Metros Hit Hardest By Inflation: Report

TAMPA BAY, FL — The Tampa-St. Petersburg-Clearwater region is one of the top metro areas in the U.S. hardest hit by inflation, coming in at No. 10 on a list of “Cities with the Biggest Inflation Problems,” according to a new report from Wallethub.

The list was created looking at data from the Consumer Price Index.

The Tampa Bay area saw a 2.3 percent CPI increase in January compared to January 2024, and a 1.2 percent increase in the last two months, according to the report.

The Chicago-Naperville-Elgin metro area topped the list at No. 1 with a 4.3 percent CPI change year over year, according to the report.

“The U.S. inflation rate hit a 40-year high after the pandemic but has since cooled significantly due to factors like the Federal Reserve rate hikes,” the report said. “The year-over-year inflation rate sits at 3 (percent) as of January 2025, which is still above the target rate of 2 (percent). Various factors, such as the war in Ukraine and labor shortages, drive this higher than average inflation. Despite the country not meeting its target yet, the Federal Reserve will keep interest rates at the level set in December 2024.”

It’s not all doom and gloom in the Tampa Bay-area, though.

Though long-term inflation keeps the region on the list of “Cities with the Biggest Inflation Problems,” Tampa is also among U.S. cities with the lowest year-over-year inflation rate.

The city ties at No. 19 on that list with Dallas, Texas, and Anchorage, Alaska.

Methodology

In order to determine how inflation is impacting people in different cities, WalletHub compared 23 MSAs (Metropolitan Statistical Areas) across two key metrics involving the Consumer Price Index, which measures inflation. The metrics are listed below, along with their corresponding weights.

We then determined each MSA’s weighted average across the metrics and used the resulting scores to rank-order our sample.

For each MSA in the sample, we used the latest data available from the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

For some MSAs, there is a one-month lag on the data available.

• Consumer Price Index Change (Latest month vs 2 months before): Full Weight (~50.00 Points)
• Consumer Price Index Change (Latest month vs 1 year ago): Full Weight (~50.00 Points)

Sources: Data used to create this ranking were obtained from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.