$100 in 1973 is worth $186 in 1980,
because prices increased 85.6% over that period, an average of
9.24% a year.
$100 in 1973 has
the same buying power as
$186
in 1980
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
85.6%
Average inflation rate
9.24% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$186
Price difference ($100 base)
$85.59
CPI in 1973
44.4
CPI in 1980
82.4
Inflation in 1973
6.22%
Inflation in 1980
13.50%
$100 in 1973 → 1980
$186
$100 in 1980 → 1973
$53.88
What happened to prices between 1973 and 1980
Between 1973 and 1980, the Consumer Price Index went from 44.4 to 82.4.
Cumulatively, prices increased 85.6%, which works out to an average of
9.24% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1973 bought what
$0.54 buys in 1980: the 1973 dollar
lost 46.1% of its purchasing power over
these 7 years.
Consumer prices rose 6.2% in 1973, nearly double 1972’s 3.2%,
as Nixon’s wage and price controls were phased out through the year and
pressure the controls had been holding back broke loose. The bigger shock
arrived that October, when Arab oil-producing states embargoed exports to the
United States and other supporters of Israel in the Yom Kippur War. Crude
oil, which had traded around $3 a barrel, approached $12 by early 1974, and
gas lines became a fixture outside filling stations nationwide. Earlier in
the year, the Paris Peace Accords, signed that January 27, ended direct
American combat in Vietnam and set a 60-day deadline for withdrawing
remaining U.S. troops, even as fighting between North and South Vietnam went
on. Financial markets read the year correctly as a turning point: the Dow
Jones Industrial Average peaked at 1,051.70 on January 11, a level it would
not reach again until 1980, before the oil shock and rising interest rates
dragged it into a two-year bear market. A median household earned $10,512 in
1973, a new home sold for a median $32,500, and gas averaged 38.5 cents a
gallon, still under half of what the embargo’s effects would bring the
following year. Consumer prices stood 348.5% above their
1913 level by year’s end, with the decade’s worst inflation
still ahead.
Every 1973 amount converts to 1980 at the same ratio, 1.86: $1,000 becomes
$1,856, and $10,000 becomes $18,559.
Amount in 1973
Value in 1980
$1.00
$1.86
$5.00
$9.28
$10.00
$18.56
$20.00
$37.12
$50.00
$92.79
$100
$186
$500
$928
$1,000
$1,856
$5,000
$9,279
$10,000
$18,559
$100,000
$185,586
$1,000,000
$1,855,856
Inflation by spending category, 1973–1980
Between 1973 and 1980, energy rose the most, up 192.5%, while apparel rose the least, up 40.7%, against 85.6% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1973
spending costs in 1980, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1973 →
All items (CPI-U)
9.24%
$186
Energy
16.57%
$293
Transportation
10.54%
$202
Housing
10.16%
$197
Medical care
9.85%
$193
Food
8.77%
$180
Core (all items less food & energy)
8.52%
$177
Apparel
5.00%
$141
Not shown because the BLS began these indexes after 1973: recreation (1993–), education & communication (1993–).
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1973
$100 from 1973 had already become $128 by
1976, on its way to $186 in 1980; each row shows the CPI, that
year's inflation rate, and the running value.
Within the span, inflation peaked at 13.5% in 1980, and the smallest rise was 5.8% in 1976.
In 1980, prices rose 13.5% and $100 from 1973 had the buying
power of $186; the year's average CPI of 82.4 is the level
behind every 1980 figure on this page.
1980 sat at the very peak of the Great Inflation. Prices rose 13.5% in that
single year, mortgage rates were climbing toward 16%, and the Federal Reserve
under Paul Volcker was administering the painful interest-rate medicine that
would finally break the inflationary spiral, at the cost of the deep 1981–82
recession. No single year looms larger in how Americans think about inflation.
MLA: “Inflation from 1973 to 1980: $100 is worth $186 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1973-to-1980/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1973 to 1980. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1973-to-1980/