$100 in 1973 is worth $375 in 1999,
because prices increased 275.2% over that period, an average of
5.22% a year.
$100 in 1973 has
the same buying power as
$375
in 1999
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
275.2%
Average inflation rate
5.22% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$375
Price difference ($100 base)
$275
CPI in 1973
44.4
CPI in 1999
166.6
Inflation in 1973
6.22%
Inflation in 1999
2.21%
$100 in 1973 → 1999
$375
$100 in 1999 → 1973
$26.65
What happened to prices between 1973 and 1999
Between 1973 and 1999, the Consumer Price Index went from 44.4 to 166.6.
Cumulatively, prices increased 275.2%, which works out to an average of
5.22% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1973 bought what
$0.27 buys in 1999: the 1973 dollar
lost 73.3% of its purchasing power over
these 26 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 1999 at the same ratio, 3.75: $1,000 becomes
$3,752, and $10,000 becomes $37,523.
Amount in 1973
Value in 1999
$1.00
$3.75
$5.00
$18.76
$10.00
$37.52
$20.00
$75.05
$50.00
$188
$100
$375
$500
$1,876
$1,000
$3,752
$5,000
$18,761
$10,000
$37,523
$100,000
$375,225
$1,000,000
$3,752,252
Inflation by spending category, 1973–1999
Between 1973 and 1999, medical care rose the most, up 545.9%, while apparel rose the least, up 103.3%, against 275.2% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1973
spending costs in 1999, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1973 →
All items (CPI-U)
5.22%
$375
Medical care
7.44%
$646
Housing
5.45%
$398
Core (all items less food & energy)
5.35%
$388
Energy
5.08%
$363
Transportation
4.94%
$350
Food
4.82%
$340
Apparel
2.77%
$203
Not shown because the BLS began these indexes after 1973: recreation (1993–), education & communication (1993–).
Decade by decade: 1973 to 1999
Prices climbed fastest in the 1970s, averaging 9.24% a year, and slowest in the 1990s (2.73% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1973–1999 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
1990–1999
2.73%
27.5%
$375
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1973
$100 from 1973 had already become $247 by
1986, on its way to $375 in 1999; 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 1.6% in 1998.
In 1999, prices rose 2.2% and $100 from 1973 had the buying
power of $375; the year's average CPI of 166.6 is the level
behind every 1999 figure on this page.
The median household earned about $40,700 in 1999, gas averaged $1.17 a gallon, and a new home
cost roughly $161,000. Inflation ran at 2.2% for the year, ticking back up from 1998’s decade low
as oil prices recovered from their collapse. The decade closed with two changes to the financial
system that would shape the one after it: on January 1, the euro launched as an accounting
currency across 11 European countries, trading alongside national currencies like the French
franc and German mark ahead of physical cash in 2002, and in November, Congress passed the
Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act, tearing down the Depression-era wall between commercial banks, investment
banks, and insurers. Stock markets, meanwhile, were absorbed in a boom of their own: the Nasdaq
surged through the year on soaring internet-stock valuations, and the Federal Reserve raised
interest rates three times in the second half of 1999 partly to cool the exuberance, even as it
pumped extra liquidity into the banking system to guard against any disruption from the Y2K
rollover. A first-class stamp cost 33 cents. Inflation had spent the decade falling from 1990’s
5.4% peak to averages closer to 2-3%, and 1999 closed it out almost exactly where the 1990s as a
whole had settled.
MLA: “Inflation from 1973 to 1999: $100 is worth $375 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1973-to-1999/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1973 to 1999. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1973-to-1999/