$100 in 1973 is worth $224 in 1983,
because prices increased 124.3% over that period, an average of
8.41% a year.
$100 in 1973 has
the same buying power as
$224
in 1983
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
124.3%
Average inflation rate
8.41% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$224
Price difference ($100 base)
$124
CPI in 1973
44.4
CPI in 1983
99.6
Inflation in 1973
6.22%
Inflation in 1983
3.21%
$100 in 1973 → 1983
$224
$100 in 1983 → 1973
$44.58
What happened to prices between 1973 and 1983
Between 1973 and 1983, the Consumer Price Index went from 44.4 to 99.6.
Cumulatively, prices increased 124.3%, which works out to an average of
8.41% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1973 bought what
$0.45 buys in 1983: the 1973 dollar
lost 55.4% of its purchasing power over
these 10 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 1983 at the same ratio, 2.24: $1,000 becomes
$2,243, and $10,000 becomes $22,432.
Amount in 1973
Value in 1983
$1.00
$2.24
$5.00
$11.22
$10.00
$22.43
$20.00
$44.86
$50.00
$112
$100
$224
$500
$1,122
$1,000
$2,243
$5,000
$11,216
$10,000
$22,432
$100,000
$224,324
$1,000,000
$2,243,243
Inflation by spending category, 1973–1983
Between 1973 and 1983, energy rose the most, up 239.8%, while apparel rose the least, up 55.1%, against 124.3% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1973
spending costs in 1983, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1973 →
All items (CPI-U)
8.41%
$224
Energy
13.01%
$340
Medical care
10.00%
$259
Housing
9.22%
$242
Transportation
9.20%
$241
Core (all items less food & energy)
8.13%
$218
Food
7.51%
$206
Apparel
4.49%
$155
Not shown because the BLS began these indexes after 1973: recreation (1993–), education & communication (1993–).
Decade by decade: 1973 to 1983
Prices climbed fastest in the 1970s, averaging 9.24% a year, and slowest in the 1980s (6.52% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1973–1983 change:
Years
Avg. yearly inflation
Price change
$100 from 1973, at end
1973–1980
9.24%
85.6%
$186
1980–1983
6.52%
20.9%
$224
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1973
$100 from 1973 had already become $147 by
1978, on its way to $224 in 1983; 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 3.2% in 1983.
In 1983, prices rose 3.2% and $100 from 1973 had the buying
power of $224; the year's average CPI of 99.6 is the level
behind every 1983 figure on this page.
1983 confirmed that the Volcker disinflation was not a one-year fluke.
Consumer prices rose 3.2% for the year, nearly identical to 1982’s pace and a
fraction of the double-digit rates of 1980 and 1981. With inflation tamed and
interest rates coming down, the economy roared back from the 1981-82
recession: real GDP grew 4.6%, the strongest calendar-year growth since the
1950s, and unemployment fell from its 10.8% peak to 8.3% by December. Housing
and auto sales, both starved of credit during the recession, led the
rebound. In April, Congress and President Reagan enacted the Social Security
Amendments of 1983, a bipartisan rescue of a system projected to run out of
money within months. The law gradually raised the full retirement age from
65 to 67, began taxing benefits for higher-income retirees, and delayed that
year’s cost-of-living adjustment by six months. For a program whose benefits
had been indexed to the CPI since 1975, the amendments were the first major
sign that inflation-proofing Social Security carried a cost Congress could
not simply legislate away. By year’s end, gas averaged $1.16 a gallon and
mailing a letter still cost 20 cents, prices that had barely moved since
1981, a sharp break from the constant increases of the previous decade.
MLA: “Inflation from 1973 to 1983: $100 is worth $224 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1973-to-1983/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1973 to 1983. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1973-to-1983/