US average price for a pound of whole chicken: $2.06/lb for September 2026 (BLS, the public shelf-price survey behind the official CPI, published monthly with the CPI), +0.1% vs a year ago. The freshest public line is Nowflation's index of USDA-reported advertised prices for chicken (every advertised cut, not whole birds alone): 126.6 for September 2026, a monthly index built from USDA's weekly grocery feature reports (-3.8% year over year). Next BLS update: November 10, 2026, with the October 2026 CPI.
Retail chicken prices rose 0.1% over the past year to $2.06/lb (September 2026), and the price is +37% versus five years ago, and 1% below the record high of $2.09/lb set in June 2025. Upstream, the corn futures price is +12.4% year over year (474.25¢/bu, October 16, 2026) — corn is the main ingredient in chicken feed, the largest cost of raising a bird, and when feed costs move the shelf follows with a lag of weeks to months. The freshest read, Nowflation's index of USDA-reported advertised prices for chicken (every advertised cut, not whole birds alone), rose 1.4% from August 2026 to September 2026 and is -3.8% on the year.
| Region | Price | As of | YoY |
|---|---|---|---|
| Northeast | $2.15/lb | September 2026 | -0.9% |
| Midwest | $2.15/lb | September 2026 | -3.1% |
| South | $1.95/lb | September 2026 | +2.1% |
| West | $2.18/lb | September 2026 | +0.8% |
This page charts the full history of the BLS price back to 2007; the regional averages the BLS publishes (Northeast, Midwest, South and West); Nowflation's index of USDA-reported advertised prices for chicken (every advertised cut, not whole birds alone); and upstream, the corn futures price. The Build-Your-Cart tool combines these staples into your personal basket, the farm-to-shelf page shows where the retail dollar goes, and the full price history is downloadable as JSON and CSV from the series page.
The US city average is $2.06/lb for September 2026, from the BLS Average Price survey — the shelf prices behind the CPI — +0.1% from a year earlier. The fresher line is Nowflation's index of USDA-reported advertised prices for chicken (every advertised cut, not whole birds alone): 126.6 for September 2026, a monthly index built from USDA's weekly grocery feature reports (-3.8% year over year). The BLS figure is monthly, so "today" on this page means the latest published month, not this morning.
Retail chicken prices rose 0.1% over the past year to $2.06/lb (September 2026), and the price is +37% versus five years ago, and 1% below the record high of $2.09/lb set in June 2025. Upstream, the corn futures price is +12.4% year over year (474.25¢/bu, October 16, 2026) — corn is the main ingredient in chicken feed, the largest cost of raising a bird, and when feed costs move the shelf follows with a lag of weeks to months. The freshest read, Nowflation's index of USDA-reported advertised prices for chicken (every advertised cut, not whole birds alone), rose 1.4% from August 2026 to September 2026 and is -3.8% on the year.
BLS average prices for October 2026 publish with the CPI on November 10, 2026 at 8:30 AM Eastern. The advertised-price index adds a month once the month has ended and USDA's weekly feature reports for it are in; this page republishes every morning with whatever is newest.
BLS; FMP for the corn futures price; USDA AMS weekly grocery feature reports (MyMarketNews), from which Nowflation builds the advertised-price index. Every series is charted with its full history on this page and listed with its source in the open data directory; the public-data series also download there.