2027 Social Security COLA
3.5% (projected)
Official figure due from the Social Security Administration on 14 October 2026.
2027 Edition | Updated October 2026
Cost of Living Increase 2027: the COLA, and What It’s Worth in Your State
Direct answer: the 2027 Social Security cost-of-living adjustment is projected at 3.5 to 3.6 percent (TSCL 3.5 percent, AARP 3.6 percent). Official figure due from the Social Security Administration on 14 October 2026, effective with January 2027 benefits. That is about $68 a month on the average check. The percentage is identical in every state, but what it buys is not: the same raise stretches to about $78 of purchasing power in Mississippi and shrinks to about $60 in Hawaii. The full 50-state table is below.
Average monthly raise
+$68
On the average benefit of about $1,940/month.
Actual inflation (CPI-U)
3.4%
12 months to August 2026; September lands 14 October.
Announcement watch: the Social Security Administration publishes the official 2027 COLA at 8:30am ET on 14 October 2026, minutes after the Bureau of Labor Statistics releases the September CPI. This page is updated with the confirmed figure the same day.
A COLA protects your benefit, not your savings. Cash sitting in a big-bank account earning under 1 percent loses ground to 3.4 percent inflation every year. Raisin lists high-yield savings and CD rates from smaller US banks and credit unions in one place.
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The state table
What the 2027 COLA is actually worth in each state
The COLA is a flat nationwide percentage, so every beneficiary gets the same raise. But a dollar does not buy the same amount everywhere. The table below takes the average raise (about $68 a month at 3.5 percent) and restates it in national-average purchasing power using the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis all-items regional price parity for 2024 (US = 100). In the cheapest states the raise is worth over $75 in national terms; in the most expensive it is worth barely $60.
This is an illustration of price levels, not of benefit rules: checks do not vary by state. Each state links to its full cost breakdown.
| # | State | Price level (US = 100) | Real value of the $68 raise |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Arkansas | 86.9 | $78.14 |
| 2 | Mississippi | 87.0 | $78.05 |
| 3 | Iowa | 87.8 | $77.33 |
| 4 | Oklahoma | 87.8 | $77.33 |
| 5 | Louisiana | 88.2 | $76.98 |
| 6 | South Dakota | 88.6 | $76.64 |
| 7 | Alabama | 88.8 | $76.46 |
| 8 | North Dakota | 89.0 | $76.29 |
| 9 | West Virginia | 89.5 | $75.87 |
| 10 | Kansas | 90.1 | $75.36 |
| 11 | Nebraska | 90.1 | $75.36 |
| 12 | Kentucky | 90.2 | $75.28 |
| 13 | Missouri | 90.8 | $74.78 |
| 14 | Tennessee | 91.9 | $73.88 |
| 15 | New Mexico | 92.2 | $73.64 |
| 16 | Wyoming | 92.7 | $73.25 |
| 17 | Ohio | 92.8 | $73.17 |
| 18 | Indiana | 93.3 | $72.78 |
| 19 | South Carolina | 93.7 | $72.47 |
| 20 | Wisconsin | 94.1 | $72.16 |
| 21 | North Carolina | 94.3 | $72.00 |
| 22 | Montana | 94.6 | $71.78 |
| 23 | Idaho | 95.5 | $71.10 |
| 24 | Michigan | 96.2 | $70.58 |
| 25 | Georgia | 96.3 | $70.51 |
| 26 | Maine | 97.1 | $69.93 |
| 27 | Texas | 97.1 | $69.93 |
| 28 | Pennsylvania | 97.6 | $69.57 |
| 29 | Vermont | 98.0 | $69.29 |
| 30 | Minnesota | 98.6 | $68.86 |
| 31 | Utah | 98.9 | $68.66 |
| 32 | Delaware | 99.8 | $68.04 |
| 33 | Illinois | 100.0 | $67.90 |
| 34 | Nevada | 100.0 | $67.90 |
| 35 | Arizona | 100.7 | $67.43 |
| 36 | Virginia | 101.1 | $67.16 |
| 37 | Rhode Island | 102.3 | $66.37 |
| 38 | Alaska | 102.4 | $66.31 |
| 39 | Colorado | 103.1 | $65.86 |
| 40 | Florida | 103.4 | $65.67 |
| 41 | Oregon | 103.4 | $65.67 |
| 42 | Connecticut | 103.6 | $65.54 |
| 43 | New Hampshire | 104.2 | $65.16 |
| 44 | Maryland | 105.0 | $64.67 |
| 45 | Massachusetts | 105.8 | $64.18 |
| 46 | Washington | 107.0 | $63.46 |
| 47 | New York | 107.9 | $62.93 |
| 48 | New Jersey | 108.8 | $62.41 |
| 49 | Hawaii | 110.0 | $61.73 |
| 50 | California | 110.7 | $61.34 |
Raise of $68/month = 3.5% of the average $1,940 benefit (projected figure). Real value = raise x 100 / state all-items price parity. Source: BEA Regional Price Parities by State (table SARPP), 2024 reference year, U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis. See methodology.
Recent history
COLA by year, 2023 to 2027
A bigger COLA is not good news in disguise: it means measured inflation ran faster over the qualifying window. The projected 2027 raise would be the largest since 2024, which in turn trailed only the four-decade-high 8.7 percent applied for 2023.
| Benefit year | COLA | Context |
|---|---|---|
| 2023 | 8.7% | Largest since 1981, set by the 2022 inflation spike |
| 2024 | 3.2% | Inflation cooling from the 2022 peak |
| 2025 | 2.5% | Smallest raise since 2021 |
| 2026 | 2.8% | Announced 24 October 2025 |
| 2027 | 3.5% (proj.) | TSCL projects 3.5%, AARP 3.6%; official 14 October 2026 |
Source: Social Security Administration COLA fact sheets, 2022 through 2025; 2027 projection per The Senior Citizens League (September 2026) and AARP.
Reading the numbers
The COLA, the CPI and your state’s price level are three different things
The COLA is a benefit raise, set once a year. It is the percentage change in the CPI-W between the third quarter of 2025 and the third quarter of 2026, locked in for all of 2027. It is the same percentage for every beneficiary in every state, by federal law.
The CPI is what prices are doing right now. Consumer prices rose 3.4 percent over the 12 months to August 2026, with energy the biggest driver, and the Northeast (3.9 percent) running well ahead of the South (3.1 percent). Because the COLA looks backward, a household’s costs can outrun the raise during the year, which is exactly what happened through 2026 against the 2.8 percent COLA. The 2026 increase page tracks that year’s numbers.
A price parity is a level, not a change. The BEA all-items parity used across this site (US = 100) measures how expensive a state is compared with the others at one point in time. That is what makes the raise worth $78 in Mississippi and $60 in Hawaii even though the percentage is identical. For where your money goes furthest, see the cheapest states ranking; for a two-state comparison on your own numbers, use the calculator.
Plan on the CPI, not the COLA headline. If September’s CPI confirms inflation near 3.6 percent, a 3.5 percent COLA roughly treads water, and that is before the 2027 Medicare Part B premium, announced separately, takes its share of the raise. Budgeting from current prices rather than the adjustment is the conservative approach.
Frequently Asked
The 2027 COLA, answered
How much is the Social Security COLA for 2027?
The official figure is announced by the Social Security Administration on 14 October 2026. Going into the announcement, The Senior Citizens League projects 3.5 percent and AARP projects 3.6 percent, both based on CPI-W readings through August 2026. The COLA is calculated as the percentage change in the Consumer Price Index for Urban Wage Earners and Clerical Workers (CPI-W) between the third quarter of 2025 and the third quarter of 2026. A 3.5 percent adjustment would be the largest raise since the 3.2 percent applied for 2024.
When is the 2027 COLA announced and when does it take effect?
The Social Security Administration announces the COLA on 14 October 2026, the same morning the Bureau of Labor Statistics releases the September CPI, because September is the final month of the third-quarter CPI-W window the COLA is computed from. The adjustment applies to Social Security benefits paid from January 2027, and to SSI payments from 31 December 2026. Beneficiaries receive their personalized new benefit amount by mail or in their my Social Security account in early December.
How much more money is that per month?
A 3.5 percent COLA adds about $68 a month to the average Social Security benefit of roughly $1,940. A simple rule of thumb: at 3.5 percent you gain about $35 a month for every $1,000 of current monthly benefit, so a $2,400 check rises by about $84. Medicare Part B premiums for 2027, which are deducted from most checks and are announced separately in the autumn, will absorb part of the raise for most retirees.
Is the 2027 COLA the same in every state?
Yes. The COLA is a single nationwide percentage set by federal law; a beneficiary in Hawaii and one in Mississippi get exactly the same 3.5 percent. What differs is what the extra dollars buy. Using the BEA all-items regional price parities (US = 100), the same $68 raise stretches to roughly $78 of national-average purchasing power in Mississippi (price level around 87) but shrinks to about $60 in Hawaii (around 113) and in California. The table on this page runs that arithmetic for all 50 states. It is an illustration of local price levels, not a difference in benefits.
Will the 2027 COLA keep up with inflation?
Probably not fully, and that gap is the recurring complaint about how the COLA is built. Consumer prices rose 3.4 percent over the 12 months to August 2026 (CPI-U) and forecasters expected the September reading, released the same day as the COLA announcement, to come in near 3.6 to 3.7 percent on higher gasoline prices. A 3.5 percent COLA roughly matches that headline pace, but the COLA is set from a backward-looking window and stays fixed for all of 2027 even if inflation accelerates. Seniors also spend more of their budget on housing and medical care than the CPI-W assumes, which is why advocacy groups argue for indexing to the experimental CPI-E instead.
How does the 2027 COLA compare with recent years?
At the projected 3.5 percent it would be the largest adjustment since 2024's 3.2 percent, and before that 2023's 8.7 percent, the biggest in four decades. The run of recent COLAs is 8.7 percent for 2023, 3.2 percent for 2024, 2.5 percent for 2025 and 2.8 percent for 2026. A rising COLA is double-edged: it means measured inflation re-accelerated during 2026, so the bigger raise is compensating for faster price growth, not adding real purchasing power.
What does a cost of living increase mean for people not on Social Security?
The COLA only adjusts federal benefits, but the same CPI data drives much else: many pensions, some union contracts, alimony and child-support reviews, and the IRS inflation adjustments to tax brackets and the standard deduction for 2027. Employers typically budget separate cost-of-living or merit raises; in recent years US salary-increase budgets have run near 3.5 to 4 percent. For a household, the practical number is still the CPI itself: prices rose 3.4 percent over the year to August 2026, with the Northeast running hottest at 3.9 percent and the South coolest at 3.1 percent.