$100 in 1973 is worth $414 in 2003,
because prices increased 314.4% over that period, an average of
4.85% a year.
$100 in 1973 has
the same buying power as
$414
in 2003
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
314.4%
Average inflation rate
4.85% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$414
Price difference ($100 base)
$314
CPI in 1973
44.4
CPI in 2003
184
Inflation in 1973
6.22%
Inflation in 2003
2.28%
$100 in 1973 → 2003
$414
$100 in 2003 → 1973
$24.13
What happened to prices between 1973 and 2003
Between 1973 and 2003, the Consumer Price Index went from 44.4 to 184.
Cumulatively, prices increased 314.4%, which works out to an average of
4.85% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1973 bought what
$0.24 buys in 2003: the 1973 dollar
lost 75.9% of its purchasing power over
these 30 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 2003 at the same ratio, 4.14: $1,000 becomes
$4,144, and $10,000 becomes $41,441.
Amount in 1973
Value in 2003
$1.00
$4.14
$5.00
$20.72
$10.00
$41.44
$20.00
$82.88
$50.00
$207
$100
$414
$500
$2,072
$1,000
$4,144
$5,000
$20,721
$10,000
$41,441
$100,000
$414,414
$1,000,000
$4,144,144
Inflation by spending category, 1973–2003
Between 1973 and 2003, medical care rose the most, up 665.7%, while apparel rose the least, up 87.2%, against 314.4% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1973
spending costs in 2003, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1973 →
All items (CPI-U)
4.85%
$414
Medical care
7.02%
$766
Energy
5.25%
$464
Housing
5.13%
$449
Core (all items less food & energy)
4.93%
$424
Transportation
4.57%
$383
Food
4.49%
$373
Apparel
2.11%
$187
Not shown because the BLS began these indexes after 1973: recreation (1993–), education & communication (1993–).
Decade by decade: 1973 to 2003
Prices climbed fastest in the 1970s, averaging 9.24% a year, and slowest in the 2000s (2.23% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1973–2003 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
1990–2000
2.80%
31.8%
$388
2000–2003
2.23%
6.9%
$414
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1973
$100 from 1973 had already become $266 by
1988, on its way to $414 in 2003; 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 2003, prices rose 2.3% and $100 from 1973 had the buying
power of $414; the year's average CPI of 184 is the level
behind every 2003 figure on this page.
Inflation was 2.3% in 2003, up from 1.6% in 2002, as gasoline climbed from $1.36 to $1.59 a
gallon around the March invasion of Iraq. Even so, the Federal Reserve spent the year worried
about prices being too low: on June 25 it cut its policy rate to 1.0%, the lowest since 1958,
and said the risk of deflation, though small, deserved a response. The median household earned
about $43,300 and a new home cost roughly $195,000. Congress passed a second round of tax cuts
in May, and the economy grew faster in the second half of the year than at any point since
1999. Hiring lagged the recovery, and unemployment peaked at 6.3% in June. A first-class stamp
stayed at 37 cents and the federal minimum wage at $5.15.
MLA: “Inflation from 1973 to 2003: $100 is worth $414 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1973-to-2003/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1973 to 2003. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1973-to-2003/