Ground Beef Has More Than Doubled in the Midwest Since 2016, and Nebraskans Are Paying It
A quarter-pound burger’s worth of ground beef cost about 80 cents in the Midwest in 2016.
Today, Nebraskans pay a lot more for the same patty, even in a state with millions of cattle.
Here’s how ground beef prices in the Midwest more than doubled since 2016, and what it means for your grocery bill.
Then and Now
At the August 2016 average, the ground beef in a quarter-pound burger came to about 80 cents.
At the August 2026 average, that beef came to about $1.69.
Both figures come from the Midwest’s monthly average price of a pound of ground beef: $3.211 in August 2016 and $6.773 in August 2026.
That’s $3.56 more for every pound you put in your cart.
A Federal Reserve copy of the series lists its record at $6.968 in April 2026, so August 2026 came in 2.8% below the peak.
The Ground Beef Math Behind the Doubling
Against the 2016 average of $3.29 a pound, ground beef’s August 2026 price is 2.06 times higher.
January, February and March 2016 were the year’s priciest months, at $3.415, $3.482 and $3.494.
Against those three months, August 2026 is 1.98, 1.95 and 1.94 times higher, just short of double.
BLS says average prices are best used to measure the price level in a particular month, not price change over time.
Changes in quality or sample can also move the averages.
What the Number Covers
The ground beef average is for the Midwest region, a block of 12 states that includes Nebraska.
Average prices are published for the nation and for four major regions.
The prices are collected in the 75 urban areas BLS prices for its Consumer Price Index (CPI).
The CPI leaves out people in rural nonmetropolitan areas.
If you live in rural Nebraska or in a farm household, you may fall outside the group the CPI covers.
August by August
If you shopped for ground beef in the Midwest in August of any year from 2016 through 2020, the average was under $4 a pound.
You’d have paid an average of $4.396 a pound in August 2021, $5.742 in August 2024 and $6.588 in August 2025.
From August 2023, when it was $4.896, to August 2026, the average rose about 38%.
More than half of the $3.56 rise since August 2016 came after August 2023.
The Monthly and Yearly Bill
If you buy 5 pounds of ground beef in a month, the Midwest averages work out to near $16 at August 2016 prices and near $34 at August 2026 prices.
That’s $18 more a month.
If you buy 2 pounds a week, or 104 pounds a year, August 2026 prices cost about $370 more than August 2016 prices.
Psst! How much do you know about beef and your grocery bill? Take our quiz and see if you can ace it.
Quiz
Beef and Budget IQ
Answer these questions on beef, cattle and grocery prices. We bet you can’t get them all right. Prove us wrong?
Which state led the nation in commercial red meat production in 2024?
Regions Side by Side
If you look at the whole country, ground beef averaged $3.657 a pound in August 2016 and $6.923 in August 2026, up about 89%.
The Midwest was the only one of the four Census regions where the average more than doubled.
In August 2026, the West averaged $7.443 a pound, the Northeast $6.989, the Midwest $6.773 and the South $6.412.
The Northeast rose about 80%, the South about 84% and the West about 86%.
If you compare the Midwest with the U.S. average, it was about 45 cents lower in August 2016 and about 15 cents lower in August 2026.
Ground Beef and Overall Prices
Ground beef's average price rose about 111% in the Midwest from August 2016 to August 2026.
Over those ten years, the CPI for all items in the Midwest rose 37.2%.
One is an average price and the other is an index, so the comparison is a rough one.
An item that cost you $100 in August 2016 would cost about $137 in August 2026 if it moved with the all-items index.
At ground beef's rate, that $100 would be about $211.
Over the latest year, from August 2025 to August 2026, you'd have seen the average rise 2.8%, from $6.588 to $6.773.
Cattle by the Numbers
Ground beef comes from cattle, and Nebraska had 6.15 million cattle and calves on January 1, 2026.
Only Texas, at 12.1 million, had more.
The U.S. herd totaled 86.2 million, slightly below 86.5 million a year earlier, while Nebraska's grew by 100,000 head.
In cattle on feed, the steers and heifers being fed for the slaughter market, Nebraska also led the states.
Its 2.8 million head were about one in five of the 13.8 million nationwide.
If you compare August 2026 with August 2025, U.S. farm-level cattle prices were 3.9% lower, while wholesale beef was 3.1% higher and retail beef and veal were 5.9% higher.
Whole Chicken Over Ten Years
Ground beef rose faster than fresh whole chicken, which went from $1.362 a pound in August 2016 to $2.128 in August 2026, about 56%.
In August 2016, a pound of ground beef cost about 2.4 times a pound of whole chicken.
By August 2026, it cost about 3.2 times as much.
From August 2025 to August 2026, whole chicken fell 3.2% from $2.199 while ground beef rose 2.8%.
Whole chicken includes bones, and the University of Maine Cooperative Extension notes that about 78% of a whole, cooked chicken is edible.
If you buy 3 pounds of whole chicken instead of 3 pounds of ground beef, you'd pay about $14 less at the August 2026 Midwest averages.
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