Inflation in Los Angeles and Orange counties rose at its highest rate in 12 years as it outpaced national inflation by the widest gap in 38 years.

According to my trusty spreadsheet, local consumer prices rose 3.8 percent last year vs. 2.8 percent in 2017, and it’s the fastest inflation pace since 2006.

These price upswings are a bit startling, at least by CPI math, as local inflation averaged 1.3 percent between 2009 and 2016. That was the slowest pace of increase for the region’s cost-of-living index for any eight-year period since 1940.

We must note that before 2018, Southern California inflation was measured for L.A. and Orange counties — plus Riverside and San Bernardino counties. Government price trackers broke off the Inland Empire entities into a separate index a year ago, so the local metric is slightly altered. And there’s no yearly average yet reported for the new Riverside-San Bernardino index.

Still, the national picture shows a somewhat similar price surge, with a big exception — how fast inflation has returned.

U.S. consumer prices rose 2.4 percent last year vs. 2.1 percent for 2017. It’s the highest since 2011, and also above that low-inflation era: a 1.4-percent-a-year pace for 2009-16 — the smallest since 1965.

However, look at last year’s gap between local inflation and national price hikes — it’s 1.4 percentage points higher here. That’s double the 2017 difference between the cost benchmarks. Plus, it’s the region’s largest inflation premium to U.S. cost of living since those crazy-high inflation days of 1980. (15.8 percent local inflation vs. 13.6 nationwide!)

You can complain about the CPI’s accuracy. You can blame whomever for cost-of-living hikes — housing, gasoline, government or the bosses who hire the folks who have money to bid up the price of local goods and services.

Nonetheless, the premium charged for Southern California’s paradise is growing.