Inflation in Canada, 1925 to 2025

This issue covers inflation in Canada in three images: a chart of the annual inflation rate from 1925 to 2025, the Party Scoreboard (Liberal vs Conservative / PC) and the PM Scoreboard (the average under each Prime Minister).

On the chart, each year is shaded by the party in office for most of that year: red for Liberal, blue for Conservative and Progressive Conservative. Diagonal stripes mark minority governments.

The line shows the annual inflation rate: the percentage change in the Consumer Price Index (CPI) from one year's average to the next. The CPI tracks the cost of a basket of goods and services that Canadians buy.

From 1925 to 2025, the highest year was 1948, after the Second World War, at 14.6%. Next came 1981 at 12.5%, 1974 at 11.0% and 1982 at 10.9%. Seven years reached 10% or more.

Prices fell in six of those years, the last in 1953. The steepest drops came in the Great Depression: −9.9% in 1931, −8.5% in 1932 and −5.3% in 1933.

The numbered markers give context, not credit or blame:

The Bank of Canada and the federal government set inflation targets in 1991. Since the end of 1995, the target has been 2%, the middle of a range from 1% to 3%. The horizontal dashed line marks 2% from 1996 on. The Bank's target uses the change in the CPI from the same month a year earlier; this chart compares whole-year averages.

From 1996 to 2025, 23 of 30 years fell within 1% to 3%. Of the seven outside, four were below 1% (1998, 2009, 2013 and 2020) and three above 3% (2021 to 2023). The 1998 figure counts as outside the range: at 0.996%, it is below 1%, though it rounds to 1.0%. Within those 30 years, the highest was 6.8% in 2022 and the lowest 0.3% in 2009.

Inflation was 2.1% in 2025, down from 2.4% in 2024. The line stops at 2025: a yearly average needs a full year of data.

Across all 101 years, the average annual inflation rate was 3.0% and the median was 2.2%. The median is the middle value when the years are lined up from lowest to highest. A few extreme years, high or low, can pull an average a long way; the median is less affected.

In the 70 Liberal years, the average was 3.6% and the median 2.4%. In the 31 Conservative and PC years, the average was 1.7% and the median 1.9%. 2026 is not counted: it has no full-year figure yet.

Shading shows who was in office. It does not show who caused the result.

The PM Scoreboard sorts each term by its average annual inflation rate, from lowest to highest.

Most rows are a term: one unbroken stretch as Prime Minister, however many elections it spans. Each year counts in proportion to the days in office that year, so 1957 counts partly for Louis St-Laurent and partly for John Diefenbaker. The "Years counted" column adds up those shares.

Whole terms count, even where they start before the chart does. Arthur Meighen's first term began on July 10, 1920, and Mackenzie King's first term on December 29, 1921, so the PM Scoreboard also uses the years 1920 to 1924. Prices rose 16.3% in 1920, then fell 12.3% in 1921 and 8.0% in 1922. They were flat in 1923 and fell 2.2% in 1924. The chart and the Party Scoreboard start in 1925.

The 18 ranked rows are 15 terms plus 3 combined rows. A combined row repeats terms already listed; it is not another government. The ranked rows run from −4.2% to 9.2%.

Rows that show the same rounded figure share a rank. Mackenzie King's "all 3 terms" row and Jean Chrétien both show 1.8% and share rank 8, so the next row ranks 10. Justin Trudeau and Louis St-Laurent both show 2.7% and share rank 11.

The lowest is R.B. Bennett, 1930 to 1935, at −4.2%. He took office in August 1930, after the 1929 stock market crash, and his term includes the steepest price drops of the Great Depression, such as −9.9% in 1931.

The highest ranked row is Pierre Trudeau's second term, 1980 to 1984, at 9.2%. He returned to office in March 1980, during the second oil shock of 1979 to 1980, and his term includes 1981 at 12.5% and 1982 at 10.9%.

Neither end is a verdict. The first five rows are below zero, which means prices fell on average in those terms; 9.2% means they rose fastest of any ranked row. Joe Clark's row, at 9.5%, is higher but is not ranked: it rests on less than a year of data.

Mackenzie King, Arthur Meighen and Pierre Trudeau each held office more than once, so each also gets a combined row, shaded grey. A combined row weights each term by its years counted, so a longer term counts for more. It does not simply average the term figures.

King's terms show −1.9%, −0.1% and 3.7%, and 1.8% together; his third term is 13.1 of his 21.4 years. Pierre Trudeau's show 6.8% and 9.2%, and 7.5% together; his first term is 11.1 of his 15.4 years. Meighen's show −3.0% and 1.1%, and −2.4% together; his first term is 1.5 of his 1.7 years.

Meighen's second term is too short to rank on its own, but his combined row covers 1.7 years, so it is ranked.

Five rows are listed below the ranking without a rank: Arthur Meighen's second term (1926) at 1.1%, Joe Clark at 9.5%, John Turner at 4.3%, Kim Campbell at 1.9% and Mark Carney at 2.1%. Each rests on less than one year of data, and the annual inflation rates they draw on also cover months when someone else was in office. John Turner's 4.3%, for example, is the figure for all of 1984, and he was in office for 0.2 of that year. Joe Clark's 9.5% draws on 1979 and 1980, and he was in office for 0.6 of 1979 and 0.2 of 1980.

The test is years of data, not time in office. Mark Carney took office in 2025, the latest full year of data, and was in office for 0.8 of that year. His row joins the ranking once the 2026 figure is out.

The right-hand column names events with a strong documented link to inflation during that term. The same test applies to every Prime Minister, so some rows are blank. Combined rows carry no comment.

An event is listed only when official statistics, the Bank of Canada or peer-reviewed research tie it to prices in that term and show that it mattered: it moved a year's inflation by about half a point or more, or the source names it a main driver or a major shock. Some comments are government decisions, such as tax changes or price controls. They are listed for their documented link to prices, not as a judgment of the decision. The consumer carbon price (the federal fuel charge) shows the bar at work. Its start in 2019 is not listed: the Bank of Canada put its effect at 0.1 to 0.15 point a year, below the bar. Its removal in 2025 lowered inflation by about 0.6 point, so the removal is listed. Sources for every comment are listed at the end of this issue.

A rank puts the numbers in order. It does not show who caused them.

The Bank of Canada opened in 1935. Inflation targets began in 1991, and today the Bank sets its policy interest rate to keep inflation near 2%. The ranking spans all three periods: before the Bank existed, the Bank's years before targets, and the years since.

Government spending and taxes, world prices, wars, oil shocks, the Great Depression, pandemics and decisions made years earlier all move inflation too.

More on the method: How the charts work

Who we are: About Gov Scoreboard

Spot an error? Write to [email protected].

Adapted from Statistics Canada, Table 18-10-0005-01 (released 2026-01-19). This does not constitute an endorsement by Statistics Canada of this product.

Dates in office: House of Commons, Procedure and Practice (4th ed., 2025), Appendix 6.

Sources for the Comments column:

Gov Scoreboard