$100 in 1973 is worth $234 in 1984,
because prices increased 134.0% over that period, an average of
8.04% a year.
$100 in 1973 has
the same buying power as
$234
in 1984
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
134.0%
Average inflation rate
8.04% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$234
Price difference ($100 base)
$134
CPI in 1973
44.4
CPI in 1984
103.9
Inflation in 1973
6.22%
Inflation in 1984
4.32%
$100 in 1973 → 1984
$234
$100 in 1984 → 1973
$42.73
What happened to prices between 1973 and 1984
Between 1973 and 1984, the Consumer Price Index went from 44.4 to 103.9.
Cumulatively, prices increased 134.0%, which works out to an average of
8.04% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1973 bought what
$0.43 buys in 1984: the 1973 dollar
lost 57.3% of its purchasing power over
these 11 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 1984 at the same ratio, 2.34: $1,000 becomes
$2,340, and $10,000 becomes $23,401.
Amount in 1973
Value in 1984
$1.00
$2.34
$5.00
$11.70
$10.00
$23.40
$20.00
$46.80
$50.00
$117
$100
$234
$500
$1,170
$1,000
$2,340
$5,000
$11,700
$10,000
$23,401
$100,000
$234,009
$1,000,000
$2,340,090
Inflation by spending category, 1973–1984
Between 1973 and 1984, energy rose the most, up 243.2%, while apparel rose the least, up 58.0%, against 134.0% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1973
spending costs in 1984, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1973 →
All items (CPI-U)
8.04%
$234
Energy
11.86%
$343
Medical care
9.64%
$275
Transportation
8.75%
$252
Housing
8.74%
$251
Core (all items less food & energy)
7.84%
$229
Food
7.17%
$214
Apparel
4.25%
$158
Not shown because the BLS began these indexes after 1973: recreation (1993–), education & communication (1993–).
Decade by decade: 1973 to 1984
Prices climbed fastest in the 1970s, averaging 9.24% a year, and slowest in the 1980s (5.97% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1973–1984 change:
Years
Avg. yearly inflation
Price change
$100 from 1973, at end
1973–1980
9.24%
85.6%
$186
1980–1984
5.97%
26.1%
$234
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1973
$100 from 1973 had already become $147 by
1978, on its way to $234 in 1984; 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 1984, prices rose 4.3% and $100 from 1973 had the buying
power of $234; the year's average CPI of 103.9 is the level
behind every 1984 figure on this page.
1984 was the year the recovery became a boom. Real GDP grew 7.2%, the
fastest calendar-year growth since 1951, as the tax cuts passed in 1981
combined with falling interest rates and rebuilding consumer confidence.
Unemployment, which had topped 10.8% just two years earlier, fell below
7.5%. Inflation ticked up to 4.3% from 3.2% the year before, but nothing
close to a return of the 1970s wage-price spiral: the Federal Reserve under
Paul Volcker kept policy tight enough to hold the line while growth ran hot.
The strength of the expansion, branded “Morning in America” in President
Reagan’s reelection campaign, carried him to a 49-state landslide over
Walter Mondale that November, at the time the widest electoral-vote margin
in U.S. history. For households, the numbers behind the slogan were
concrete: median income rose to about $22,400, and a gallon of gas cost
$1.13, roughly what it had cost three years earlier even as wages kept
climbing. The contrast with 1980, when 13.5% inflation and interest rates
near 20% had defined the economy, could not have been sharper.
MLA: “Inflation from 1973 to 1984: $100 is worth $234 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1973-to-1984/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1973 to 1984. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1973-to-1984/