Grocery Prices
Dairy & Egg prices
U.S. city average · May 2026
Dairy & Eggs price snapshot
The dairy & egg group covers butter, cheddar cheese, eggs and milk — 4 staples Basket Report prices each month at the U.S. city average from Bureau of Labor Statistics data. In May 2026 they ran from eggs at $2.19 per dozen up to cheddar cheese at $5.69 per pound, with 1 costing more than a month earlier and 3 costing less.
The biggest monthly increase came from milk, up 2.0%. Going the other way, butter fell 6.8%. Over the past year eggs stands out, down 51.8% from twelve months ago.
These are unadjusted BLS shelf averages — never estimates — and each one feeds the fixed-weight Grocery Basket Price Index. Eggs carries the longest record, charted monthly back to January 1980; open any row for its history, or check the latest dairy & egg move on the Receipt.
| Item | Unit | Price | MoM | YoY | Trend |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Butter, salted, grade AA | pound | $3.93 | ▼ 6.8% | ▼ 20.7% | |
| Cheddar cheese, natural | pound | $5.69 | ▼ 5.7% | ▼ 3.8% | |
| Eggs, grade A, large | dozen | $2.19 | ▼ 2.6% | ▼ 51.8% | |
| Milk, whole, fortified | gallon | $4.22 | ▲ 2.0% | ▲ 4.8% |
Source: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, CPI Average Price Data, series listed on each item page. Retrieved May 2026 via the BLS Public Data API. Download the full directory as CSV or JSON. BLS.gov cannot vouch for the data or analyses derived from these data after the data have been retrieved from BLS.gov.