$100 in 1973 is worth $440 in 2005,
because prices increased 339.9% over that period, an average of
4.74% a year.
$100 in 1973 has
the same buying power as
$440
in 2005
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
339.9%
Average inflation rate
4.74% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$440
Price difference ($100 base)
$340
CPI in 1973
44.4
CPI in 2005
195.3
Inflation in 1973
6.22%
Inflation in 2005
3.39%
$100 in 1973 → 2005
$440
$100 in 2005 → 1973
$22.73
What happened to prices between 1973 and 2005
Between 1973 and 2005, the Consumer Price Index went from 44.4 to 195.3.
Cumulatively, prices increased 339.9%, which works out to an average of
4.74% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1973 bought what
$0.23 buys in 2005: the 1973 dollar
lost 77.3% of its purchasing power over
these 32 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 2005 at the same ratio, 4.40: $1,000 becomes
$4,399, and $10,000 becomes $43,986.
Amount in 1973
Value in 2005
$1.00
$4.40
$5.00
$21.99
$10.00
$43.99
$20.00
$87.97
$50.00
$220
$100
$440
$500
$2,199
$1,000
$4,399
$5,000
$21,993
$10,000
$43,986
$100,000
$439,865
$1,000,000
$4,398,649
Inflation by spending category, 1973–2005
Between 1973 and 2005, medical care rose the most, up 733.0%, while apparel rose the least, up 85.0%, against 339.9% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1973
spending costs in 2005, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1973 →
All items (CPI-U)
4.74%
$440
Medical care
6.85%
$833
Energy
5.77%
$602
Housing
4.99%
$475
Core (all items less food & energy)
4.74%
$441
Transportation
4.60%
$422
Food
4.39%
$396
Apparel
1.94%
$185
Not shown because the BLS began these indexes after 1973: recreation (1993–), education & communication (1993–).
Decade by decade: 1973 to 2005
Prices climbed fastest in the 1970s, averaging 9.24% a year, and slowest in the 2000s (2.55% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1973–2005 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
2000–2005
2.55%
13.4%
$440
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1973
$100 from 1973 had already become $279 by
1989, on its way to $440 in 2005; 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.
Long periods are sampled every 2 years; the calculator above covers any pair of years.
The destination year: 2005
In 2005, prices rose 3.4% and $100 from 1973 had the buying
power of $440; the year's average CPI of 195.3 is the level
behind every 2005 figure on this page.
Inflation rose to 3.4% in 2005, up from 2.7% in 2004, as gasoline averaged $2.30 a gallon,
compared with $1.88 the year before. Hurricane Katrina made landfall on August 29, and with
Hurricane Rita weeks later it disrupted Gulf Coast refining, pushing the national average
price past $3 in early September. The Federal Reserve raised its policy rate at every meeting,
from 2.25% to 4.25%, to keep energy costs from feeding into other prices. The median household
earned about $46,300, up 4.5% from 2004, but the median new home price rose a further 9%, to
$240,900. In April, Congress passed a bankruptcy law that made it harder to clear debts. A
first-class stamp stayed at 37 cents until January 2006, and the federal minimum wage stayed
at $5.15.
MLA: “Inflation from 1973 to 2005: $100 is worth $440 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1973-to-2005/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1973 to 2005. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1973-to-2005/