Humboldt gas prices spike as county stays among nation’s highest
Eureka gasoline hit $6.41 a gallon, more than $2.50 above the U.S. average and 89 cents higher than a year ago, squeezing commuters, shops and rural families.
Eureka drivers were paying $6.41 a gallon on May 31, a price that kept Humboldt County among the nation’s most expensive places to buy gasoline and put immediate pressure on commuters, delivery-dependent small businesses and families that already rack up long rural drives.
The May 2026 Humboldt Economic Index from Cal Poly Humboldt put Eureka’s average price one cent above the previous month and 89 cents above the same point in 2025. The index showed Eureka at 38 cents above San Francisco, 41 cents above California’s average and 38 cents above Northern California’s average.
The Humboldt Economic Index, produced by Economics Department students and faculty, is now in its 30th year and is the county’s only monthly source of broad-based economic indicators. Erick Eschker, the index’s director and a professor of economics at Cal Poly Humboldt: "Eureka has long had among the highest gasoline prices in the nation and that the gap between Eureka and the rest of California has widened over the last three years."
AAA’s county fuel map, which updates retail prices daily, put California’s average at $5.486 a gallon on June 26 and the national average at $3.901. That left Eureka’s $6.41 price from the end of May more than $2.50 above the country as a whole and still well ahead of the state average.
March 10 already put Humboldt County second-highest in the country at $5.806 a gallon, behind Mono County at $5.947. At that point, the national average was $3.539 and California’s average was $5.290.
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