$100 in 1973 is worth $454 in 2006,
because prices increased 354.1% over that period, an average of
4.69% a year.
$100 in 1973 has
the same buying power as
$454
in 2006
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
354.1%
Average inflation rate
4.69% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$454
Price difference ($100 base)
$354
CPI in 1973
44.4
CPI in 2006
201.6
Inflation in 1973
6.22%
Inflation in 2006
3.23%
$100 in 1973 → 2006
$454
$100 in 2006 → 1973
$22.02
What happened to prices between 1973 and 2006
Between 1973 and 2006, the Consumer Price Index went from 44.4 to 201.6.
Cumulatively, prices increased 354.1%, which works out to an average of
4.69% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1973 bought what
$0.22 buys in 2006: the 1973 dollar
lost 78.0% of its purchasing power over
these 33 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 2006 at the same ratio, 4.54: $1,000 becomes
$4,541, and $10,000 becomes $45,405.
Amount in 1973
Value in 2006
$1.00
$4.54
$5.00
$22.70
$10.00
$45.41
$20.00
$90.81
$50.00
$227
$100
$454
$500
$2,270
$1,000
$4,541
$5,000
$22,703
$10,000
$45,405
$100,000
$454,054
$1,000,000
$4,540,541
Inflation by spending category, 1973–2006
Between 1973 and 2006, medical care rose the most, up 766.5%, while apparel rose the least, up 85.0%, against 354.1% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1973
spending costs in 2006, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1973 →
All items (CPI-U)
4.69%
$454
Medical care
6.76%
$866
Energy
5.93%
$670
Housing
4.95%
$493
Core (all items less food & energy)
4.67%
$452
Transportation
4.59%
$439
Food
4.33%
$405
Apparel
1.88%
$185
Not shown because the BLS began these indexes after 1973: recreation (1993–), education & communication (1993–).
Decade by decade: 1973 to 2006
Prices climbed fastest in the 1970s, averaging 9.24% a year, and slowest in the 2000s (2.66% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1973–2006 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
2000–2006
2.66%
17.1%
$454
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1973
$100 from 1973 had already become $279 by
1989, on its way to $454 in 2006; 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: 2006
In 2006, prices rose 3.2% and $100 from 1973 had the buying
power of $454; the year's average CPI of 201.6 is the level
behind every 2006 figure on this page.
Inflation was 3.2% in 2006 and gasoline averaged $2.59 a gallon, up 29 cents from 2005. The
median household earned about $48,200 and the median new home cost $246,500, a gain of about
2% after a 13% jump in 2004 and 9% in 2005. National home prices, by the S&P/Case-Shiller
index, peaked in mid-2006. Ben Bernanke replaced Alan Greenspan as Federal Reserve chair on
February 1, and on June 29 the Fed raised its policy rate to 5.25%, the last of 17 straight
quarter-point increases. It held there for over a year. A first-class stamp rose to 39 cents in
January, and the federal minimum wage was $5.15 for the ninth full year in a row.
MLA: “Inflation from 1973 to 2006: $100 is worth $454 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1973-to-2006/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1973 to 2006. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1973-to-2006/