$100 in 1973 is worth $325 in 1993,
because prices increased 225.5% over that period, an average of
6.08% a year.
$100 in 1973 has
the same buying power as
$325
in 1993
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
225.5%
Average inflation rate
6.08% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$325
Price difference ($100 base)
$225
CPI in 1973
44.4
CPI in 1993
144.5
Inflation in 1973
6.22%
Inflation in 1993
2.99%
$100 in 1973 → 1993
$325
$100 in 1993 → 1973
$30.73
What happened to prices between 1973 and 1993
Between 1973 and 1993, the Consumer Price Index went from 44.4 to 144.5.
Cumulatively, prices increased 225.5%, which works out to an average of
6.08% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1973 bought what
$0.31 buys in 1993: the 1973 dollar
lost 69.3% of its purchasing power over
these 20 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 1993 at the same ratio, 3.25: $1,000 becomes
$3,255, and $10,000 becomes $32,545.
Amount in 1973
Value in 1993
$1.00
$3.25
$5.00
$16.27
$10.00
$32.55
$20.00
$65.09
$50.00
$163
$100
$325
$500
$1,627
$1,000
$3,255
$5,000
$16,273
$10,000
$32,545
$100,000
$325,450
$1,000,000
$3,254,505
Inflation by spending category, 1973–1993
Between 1973 and 1993, medical care rose the most, up 419.1%, while apparel rose the least, up 107.0%, against 225.5% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1973
spending costs in 1993, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1973 →
All items (CPI-U)
6.08%
$325
Medical care
8.58%
$519
Energy
6.53%
$354
Housing
6.35%
$343
Core (all items less food & energy)
6.21%
$334
Transportation
5.93%
$317
Food
5.51%
$292
Apparel
3.70%
$207
Not shown because the BLS began these indexes after 1973: recreation (1993–), education & communication (1993–).
Decade by decade: 1973 to 1993
Prices climbed fastest in the 1970s, averaging 9.24% a year, and slowest in the 1990s (3.40% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1973–1993 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
1990–1993
3.40%
10.6%
$325
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1973
$100 from 1973 had already become $224 by
1983, on its way to $325 in 1993; 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 1993, prices rose 3.0% and $100 from 1973 had the buying
power of $325; the year's average CPI of 144.5 is the level
behind every 1993 figure on this page.
By 1993, the median household earned about $31,200, gas averaged $1.11 a gallon, and a new home
cost roughly $126,500. Inflation ran at 3.0% for the year, holding close to where it had settled
the year before as the recovery slowly gathered strength. Washington spent much of the year on
two pieces of unfinished business from the recession: a deficit-reduction package, the Omnibus
Budget Reconciliation Act, that raised the top income tax rate to 39.6% to start narrowing a
budget gap left over from the 1980s, and a trade deal, the North American Free Trade Agreement,
that President Clinton signed into law in December after a contentious fight in Congress. NAFTA
phased out most tariffs between the U.S., Mexico, and Canada and took effect the following
January. The year’s other defining event had nothing to do with the economy: in February, a bomb
exploded in the World Trade Center’s parking garage, killing six people and injuring more than a
thousand. By year’s end, the pieces of the decade’s later economic story, freer trade, a
shrinking deficit, and inflation holding near 3%, were already in place.
MLA: “Inflation from 1973 to 1993: $100 is worth $325 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1973-to-1993/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1973 to 1993. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1973-to-1993/