$100 in 1973 is worth $294 in 1990,
because prices increased 194.4% over that period, an average of
6.56% a year.
$100 in 1973 has
the same buying power as
$294
in 1990
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
194.4%
Average inflation rate
6.56% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$294
Price difference ($100 base)
$194
CPI in 1973
44.4
CPI in 1990
130.7
Inflation in 1973
6.22%
Inflation in 1990
5.40%
$100 in 1973 → 1990
$294
$100 in 1990 → 1973
$33.97
What happened to prices between 1973 and 1990
Between 1973 and 1990, the Consumer Price Index went from 44.4 to 130.7.
Cumulatively, prices increased 194.4%, which works out to an average of
6.56% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1973 bought what
$0.34 buys in 1990: the 1973 dollar
lost 66.0% of its purchasing power over
these 17 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 1990 at the same ratio, 2.94: $1,000 becomes
$2,944, and $10,000 becomes $29,437.
Amount in 1973
Value in 1990
$1.00
$2.94
$5.00
$14.72
$10.00
$29.44
$20.00
$58.87
$50.00
$147
$100
$294
$500
$1,472
$1,000
$2,944
$5,000
$14,718
$10,000
$29,437
$100,000
$294,369
$1,000,000
$2,943,694
Inflation by spending category, 1973–1990
Between 1973 and 1990, medical care rose the most, up 319.6%, while apparel rose the least, up 92.1%, against 194.4% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1973
spending costs in 1990, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1973 →
All items (CPI-U)
6.56%
$294
Medical care
8.80%
$420
Energy
7.60%
$347
Housing
6.92%
$312
Core (all items less food & energy)
6.62%
$297
Transportation
6.52%
$292
Food
6.12%
$275
Apparel
3.92%
$192
Not shown because the BLS began these indexes after 1973: recreation (1993–), education & communication (1993–).
Decade by decade: 1973 to 1990
Prices climbed fastest in the 1970s, averaging 9.24% a year, and slowest in the 1980s (4.72% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1973–1990 change:
Years
Avg. yearly inflation
Price change
$100 from 1973, at end
1973–1980
9.24%
85.6%
$186
1980–1990
4.72%
58.6%
$294
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1973
$100 from 1973 had already become $205 by
1981, on its way to $294 in 1990; 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 1990, prices rose 5.4% and $100 from 1973 had the buying
power of $294; the year's average CPI of 130.7 is the level
behind every 1990 figure on this page.
In 1990, the median U.S. household earned about $29,900, gas averaged $1.15 a
gallon, and mailing a letter cost a quarter. Inflation ran hot at 5.4% for the
year, its highest rate since 1982, pushed up by an oil shock after Iraq’s
invasion of Kuwait, and the economy tipped into recession that summer. It was
the last gasp of elevated inflation before the long calm of the 1990s.
MLA: “Inflation from 1973 to 1990: $100 is worth $294 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1973-to-1990/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1973 to 1990. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1973-to-1990/