Frequently Asked Questions

Does EIA have historical gasoline prices for each state?

The U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) publishes retail gasoline prices, including taxes, for selected cities and states dating back to 2000. Weekly prices, average monthly prices, and average annual prices by grade and formulation are available.

Average monthly (and annual) prices for all states, from retail outlets, excluding taxes, by grade and formulation (and by other sales types) are available from 1983 to 2011. (Note: data collection for the price series was suspended in 2011.) Historical federal and state taxes on motor vehicle fuels are published in the Motor Fuels sections of the Federal Highway Administration’s annual Highway Statistics Series.

There are also estimates for historical average annual gasoline prices for each state dating back to 1970 in the State Energy Data System (SEDS). The prices are in dollars per million British thermal units ($/MMBtu), and include federal and state gasoline taxes, but they exclude local taxes.

To obtain the historical prices from the SEDS data, use the CSV file for All States—Prices. In the file, the code for gasoline prices for the transportation sector, in $/MMBtu, is: State Abbreviation (in column A) and MGACD (in column B). For example, the code for Alaska is AK—MGACD. Those prices, in $/MMBtu, can be converted to approximate dollars per gallon using the heat contents in Table A3 Petroleum consumption and fuel ethanol. There are 42 U.S. gallons in a barrel.

Last updated: February 3, 2016