By the numbers
Gas prices in the Midwest jumped about $1.28 per gallon between the beginning of January and the middle of April, rising from $2.59 to $3.87, or about 49 percent, data from the Energy Information Administration show. Prices have since fallen to about $3.79 per gallon.
The increase has returned gas prices to their highest level since October 2022, when gas was $3.88 per gallon, equivalent to $4.25 per gallon in today’s dollars.
Prior to the sharp upward turn in February, gas prices had been trending downward. As the Badger Institute previously reported, Midwestern gas prices reached their highest level in June 2022 at $5.44 per gallon, adjusted for inflation. Prices had fallen since, until the recent uptick.
In inflation-adjusted terms, the all-time highest weekly average price remains the level reached in July 2008, when a gallon of gas cost the equivalent of $5.87 in 2026 dollars. Even at $3.79, recent gas prices are still 35 percent lower than the 2008 all-time high, and 30 percent down from the 2022 peak.
The recent shock largely appears to be driven by events in the Middle East. A 2025 report from the EIA estimated that about 20 percent of global petroleum consumption flowed through the Strait of Hormuz, a strategic chokepoint connecting the Persian Gulf to the Indian Ocean. As a result of U.S. military involvement and Iranian retaliation, commercial shipping through the strait has been severely disrupted.
To produce its estimates, the EIA manually surveys about 1,000 retail outlets by phone or email every week about their prices including taxes. For the purposes of the survey, the Midwest is defined as Wisconsin, Michigan, Ohio, Kentucky, Tennessee, Indiana, Illinois, Missouri, Oklahoma, Kansas, Nebraska, South Dakota, North Dakota, Minnesota and Iowa.
Wyatt Eichholz is a policy and legislative associate at the Badger Institute.
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