Photo from Unsplash

 

Originally Posted On : https://www.empower.com/the-currency/life/gas-prices-by-state

 

 

Pump it up: Empower proprietary data shows that consumers are spending slightly less on gas than the same time last year.*

Month

Overall spend

Spend per transaction

May 2022

$253

$56

May 2023

$213

$51

Cost of inflation

The thing about inflation is this: Not all industries have been impacted the same. Overall, consumer inflation was up 4% as of May 2023.1

The price of medical care commodities, for instance, was up by 4.4% year-over-year while the cost of food has increased by 6.7%.1 Gasoline, overall, is down by 20.4% compared to last year.1

U.S. gas prices

Indeed, costs have gone down across the States. To draw a comparison, we took a look at gas prices using data from AAA.2

In June 2023, the national average prices are:

• Regular unleaded: $3.583
• Mid-grade: $4.004
• Premium: $4.331
• Diesel: $3.918
• E85: $2.964

National average prices from June 2022 were:

• Regular unleaded: $4.970
• Mid-grade: $5.332
• Premium: $5.624
• Diesel: $5.740
• E85: $4.305

So how does your state compare to the rest of the nation? Check out the full list below (as of June 2023).

Average gas prices by state

State

Regular

Mid-Grade

Premium

Diesel

Alaska $4.008 $4.145 $4.366 $4.141 Alabama $3.113 $3.498 $3.875 $3.676 Arkansas $3.121 $3.507 $3.873 $3.671 Arizona $4.335 $4.672 $4.944 $4.324 California $4.891 $5.094 $5.247 $5.068 Colorado $3.481 $3.847 $4.136 $3.932 Connecticut $3.635 $4.104 $4.491 $4.135 District of Columbia $3.667 $4.219 $4.621 $4.320 Delaware $3.374 $3.843 $4.099 $3.673 Florida $3.390 $3.784 $4.103 $3.782 Georgia $3.276 $3.677 $4.059 $3.809 Hawaii $4.745 $4.967 $5.223 $5.781 Iowa $3.383 $3.623 $4.122 $3.661 Idaho $3.963 $4.159 $4.413 $3.996 Illinois $3.962 $4.444 $4.873 $3.967 Indiana $3.657 $4.103 $4.545 $4.018 Kansas $3.257 $3.555 $3.855 $3.637 Kentucky $3.329 $3.781 $4.176 $3.804 Louisiana $3.096 $3.489 $3.836 $3.520 Massachusetts $3.531 $4.044 $4.383 $4.261 Maryland $3.428 $3.943 $4.214 $3.791 Maine $3.571 $3.970 $4.364 $4.229 Michigan $3.644 $4.080 $4.555 $3.972 Minnesota $3.489 $3.778 $4.177 $3.820 Missouri $3.201 $3.508 $3.835 $3.567 Mississippi $2.972 $3.344 $3.702 $3.532 Montana $3.670 $3.974 $4.232 $4.152 North Carolina $3.341 $3.722 $4.069 $3.739 North Dakota $3.461 $3.735 $4.048 $3.911 Nebraska $3.347 $3.545 $3.986 $3.645 New Hampshire $3.483 $3.900 $4.304 $4.158 New Jersey $3.495 $4.016 $4.270 $3.722 New Mexico $3.452 $3.791 $4.072 $4.058 Nevada $4.269 $4.512 $4.747 $4.275 New York $3.697 $4.143 $4.498 $4.511 Ohio $3.613 $4.019 $4.453 $3.894 Oklahoma $3.213 $3.541 $3.796 $3.479 Oregon $4.402 $4.553 $4.773 $4.412 Pennsylvania $3.657 $4.033 $4.305 $4.362 Rhode Island $3.504 $4.109 $4.444 $4.255 South Carolina $3.185 $3.576 $3.940 $3.640 South Dakota $3.466 $3.628 $4.105 $3.754 Tennessee $3.159 $3.551 $3.902 $3.633 Texas $3.148 $3.538 $3.870 $3.354 Utah $4.147 $4.378 $4.577 $3.976 Virginia $3.304 $3.710 $4.038 $3.769 Vermont $3.588 $4.013 $4.442 $3.952 Washington $4.771 $4.974 $5.170 $4.938 Wisconsin $3.564 $3.937 $4.415 $3.673 West Virginia $3.414 $3.726 $4.018 $3.917 Wyoming $3.548 $3.802 $4.071 $4.163

Highest and lowest spend by state

That’s just the cost per gallon. Looking at Empower Personal DashboardTM users, we examined how much people are spending every time they fuel up. Costs vary widely by state.*

Here are the 10 states with the highest and lowest expenditures during each visit to a gas station in May 2023.

State

Spend per transaction

California

$64.14

New York $63.97 Alaska $61.30

Connecticut

$58.13

Massachusetts $56.79 New Mexico $39.20 Montana $38.95 Missouri $38.95 Iowa $37.17

Wisconsin

$35.72

 

“There are many factors that can go into gas prices,” says Daniel Goldfarb, CERTIFIED FINANCIAL PLANNER professional. “In states with lower gas prices, it’s possible that there is less demand or it’s easier to transport the gas in those states.”

He says that in places where gas is the most expensive, it’s a combination of various factors.

“In California, there is a large population with high demand, and the fuel taxes in that state are also set higher than other states,” he says. “Consumers are often unaware of how high the percentage is that they pay for taxes in each gallon that they purchase at the fuel pump. Alaska is another state with increased delivery costs; therefore, the state has higher gas prices to offset these additional costs.”