$100 in 1973 is worth $533 in 2014,
because prices increased 433.2% over that period, an average of
4.17% a year.
$100 in 1973 has
the same buying power as
$533
in 2014
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
433.2%
Average inflation rate
4.17% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$533
Price difference ($100 base)
$433
CPI in 1973
44.4
CPI in 2014
236.736
Inflation in 1973
6.22%
Inflation in 2014
1.62%
$100 in 1973 → 2014
$533
$100 in 2014 → 1973
$18.76
What happened to prices between 1973 and 2014
Between 1973 and 2014, the Consumer Price Index went from 44.4 to 236.736.
Cumulatively, prices increased 433.2%, which works out to an average of
4.17% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1973 bought what
$0.19 buys in 2014: the 1973 dollar
lost 81.2% of its purchasing power over
these 41 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 2014 at the same ratio, 5.33: $1,000 becomes
$5,332, and $10,000 becomes $53,319.
Amount in 1973
Value in 2014
$1.00
$5.33
$5.00
$26.66
$10.00
$53.32
$20.00
$107
$50.00
$267
$100
$533
$500
$2,666
$1,000
$5,332
$5,000
$26,659
$10,000
$53,319
$100,000
$533,189
$1,000,000
$5,331,892
Inflation by spending category, 1973–2014
Between 1973 and 2014, medical care rose the most, up 1021.9%, while apparel rose the least, up 97.4%, against 433.2% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1973
spending costs in 2014, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1973 →
All items (CPI-U)
4.17%
$533
Medical care
6.07%
$1,122
Energy
5.29%
$829
Housing
4.32%
$566
Transportation
4.12%
$524
Core (all items less food & energy)
4.11%
$522
Food
4.02%
$504
Apparel
1.67%
$197
Not shown because the BLS began these indexes after 1973: recreation (1993–), education & communication (1993–).
Decade by decade: 1973 to 2014
Prices climbed fastest in the 1970s, averaging 9.24% a year, and slowest in the 2010s (2.08% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1973–2014 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
2000–2010
2.39%
26.6%
$491
2010–2014
2.08%
8.6%
$533
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1973
$100 from 1973 had already become $325 by
1993, on its way to $533 in 2014; 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 prices fell 0.4% in 2009, the deepest deflation of the period.
Long periods are sampled every 2 years; the calculator above covers any pair of years.
The destination year: 2014
In 2014, prices rose 1.6% and $100 from 1973 had the buying
power of $533; the year's average CPI of 236.736 is the level
behind every 2014 figure on this page.
2014 ended with the sharpest oil price drop in years. Consumer prices rose
1.6% for the year, close to 2013’s pace, but the annual figure hid a shift at
the pump: crude oil fell from above $100 a barrel in June to below $60 in
December, and gasoline finished the year near $2.25 a gallon after averaging
$3.37 across 2014. The drop reflected record U.S. shale output, softer
global demand, and OPEC’s decision in November to keep producing.
For households, cheaper fuel arrived just as the labor market strengthened.
Median household income was $53,657, essentially flat on the prior year, and
the median new home sold for about $288,500. The federal minimum wage stayed
at $7.25 for a fifth year, and a first-class stamp rose to 49 cents.
The Federal Reserve ended its bond purchases in October but left its policy
rate at zero. A stronger dollar helped hold down import prices. Because
energy weighs heavily in the CPI, the late-year slide carried into 2015, which
posted the smallest annual increase of the decade.
MLA: “Inflation from 1973 to 2014: $100 is worth $533 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1973-to-2014/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1973 to 2014. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1973-to-2014/