$100 in 1973 is worth $279 in 1989,
because prices increased 179.3% over that period, an average of
6.63% a year.
$100 in 1973 has
the same buying power as
$279
in 1989
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
179.3%
Average inflation rate
6.63% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$279
Price difference ($100 base)
$179
CPI in 1973
44.4
CPI in 1989
124
Inflation in 1973
6.22%
Inflation in 1989
4.82%
$100 in 1973 → 1989
$279
$100 in 1989 → 1973
$35.81
What happened to prices between 1973 and 1989
Between 1973 and 1989, the Consumer Price Index went from 44.4 to 124.
Cumulatively, prices increased 179.3%, which works out to an average of
6.63% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1973 bought what
$0.36 buys in 1989: the 1973 dollar
lost 64.2% of its purchasing power over
these 16 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 1989 at the same ratio, 2.79: $1,000 becomes
$2,793, and $10,000 becomes $27,928.
Amount in 1973
Value in 1989
$1.00
$2.79
$5.00
$13.96
$10.00
$27.93
$20.00
$55.86
$50.00
$140
$100
$279
$500
$1,396
$1,000
$2,793
$5,000
$13,964
$10,000
$27,928
$100,000
$279,279
$1,000,000
$2,792,793
Inflation by spending category, 1973–1989
Between 1973 and 1989, medical care rose the most, up 284.8%, while apparel rose the least, up 83.6%, against 179.3% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1973
spending costs in 1989, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1973 →
All items (CPI-U)
6.63%
$279
Medical care
8.79%
$385
Energy
7.56%
$321
Housing
7.07%
$299
Core (all items less food & energy)
6.72%
$283
Transportation
6.57%
$277
Food
6.14%
$260
Apparel
3.87%
$184
Not shown because the BLS began these indexes after 1973: recreation (1993–), education & communication (1993–).
Decade by decade: 1973 to 1989
Prices climbed fastest in the 1970s, averaging 9.24% a year, and slowest in the 1980s (4.65% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1973–1989 change:
Years
Avg. yearly inflation
Price change
$100 from 1973, at end
1973–1980
9.24%
85.6%
$186
1980–1989
4.65%
50.5%
$279
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1973
$100 from 1973 had already become $205 by
1981, on its way to $279 in 1989; 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 1.9% in 1986.
In 1989, prices rose 4.8% and $100 from 1973 had the buying
power of $279; the year's average CPI of 124 is the level
behind every 1989 figure on this page.
1989 closed out a decade that began in economic crisis and ended in a long,
calmer expansion. Inflation for the year came in at 4.8%, higher than the
mid-decade lull but still roughly a third of the 13.5% peak that had opened
the decade in 1980. The federal minimum wage, unchanged at $3.35 an hour
since January 1981, had gone longer without an increase than at any point
since Congress created it, and had lost close to a third of its purchasing
power to inflation in the meantime; lawmakers would finally raise it to
$3.80 the following April. The decade’s other unfinished business came due
in August, when Congress passed FIRREA, the law that created the Resolution
Trust Corporation to seize and sell off the hundreds of savings and loan
institutions that a decade of deregulation and risky lending had left
insolvent, a bailout that eventually cost taxpayers over $100 billion. On
Wall Street, the recovery was already complete: the Dow Jones Industrial
Average closed 1989 at a record high, just over two years after Black
Monday’s 22.6% single-day crash, capping the bull market that had begun at
the Dow’s 776 low in August 1982. Between the S&L bailout, a wage floor
eroded by years without a raise, and a stock market at new highs, 1989
captured how unevenly the decade’s disinflation had been felt.
MLA: “Inflation from 1973 to 1989: $100 is worth $279 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1973-to-1989/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1973 to 1989. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1973-to-1989/