$100 in 1973 is worth $534 in 2015,
because prices increased 433.8% over that period, an average of
4.07% a year.
$100 in 1973 has
the same buying power as
$534
in 2015
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
433.8%
Average inflation rate
4.07% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$534
Price difference ($100 base)
$434
CPI in 1973
44.4
CPI in 2015
237.017
Inflation in 1973
6.22%
Inflation in 2015
0.12%
$100 in 1973 → 2015
$534
$100 in 2015 → 1973
$18.73
What happened to prices between 1973 and 2015
Between 1973 and 2015, the Consumer Price Index went from 44.4 to 237.017.
Cumulatively, prices increased 433.8%, which works out to an average of
4.07% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1973 bought what
$0.19 buys in 2015: the 1973 dollar
lost 81.3% of its purchasing power over
these 42 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 2015 at the same ratio, 5.34: $1,000 becomes
$5,338, and $10,000 becomes $53,382.
Amount in 1973
Value in 2015
$1.00
$5.34
$5.00
$26.69
$10.00
$53.38
$20.00
$107
$50.00
$267
$100
$534
$500
$2,669
$1,000
$5,338
$5,000
$26,691
$10,000
$53,382
$100,000
$533,822
$1,000,000
$5,338,221
Inflation by spending category, 1973–2015
Between 1973 and 2015, medical care rose the most, up 1051.4%, while apparel rose the least, up 94.9%, against 433.8% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1973
spending costs in 2015, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1973 →
All items (CPI-U)
4.07%
$534
Medical care
5.99%
$1,151
Energy
4.71%
$690
Housing
4.26%
$578
Core (all items less food & energy)
4.06%
$531
Food
3.97%
$513
Transportation
3.82%
$483
Apparel
1.60%
$195
Not shown because the BLS began these indexes after 1973: recreation (1993–), education & communication (1993–).
Decade by decade: 1973 to 2015
Prices climbed fastest in the 1970s, averaging 9.24% a year, and slowest in the 2010s (1.68% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1973–2015 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
2010–2015
1.68%
8.7%
$534
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1973
$100 from 1973 had already become $325 by
1993, on its way to $534 in 2015; 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: 2015
In 2015, prices rose 0.1% and $100 from 1973 had the buying
power of $534; the year's average CPI of 237.017 is the level
behind every 2015 figure on this page.
2015 was almost a year with no inflation at all. Consumer prices rose 0.1%,
the smallest increase since the 2009 decline, because energy prices kept
falling. Gasoline averaged $2.45 a gallon, down from $3.37 in 2014, and a
strong dollar made imported goods cheaper. The picture was different outside
food and energy: core prices rose about 1.8% as rents and medical costs
climbed.
Incomes finally showed real progress. Median household income reached $56,516,
a large jump from $53,657, and the median new home sold for about $296,400. The
federal minimum wage stayed at $7.25, and a first-class stamp stayed at 49
cents.
The Federal Reserve chose December to end its zero-rate policy, raising the
target range to 0.25–0.50% for the first time since 2006. It moved even
though headline inflation was far under 2%, arguing that the drag from
energy was temporary. Earlier, a currency shift in China in August had shaken
global markets and pushed oil below $40 a barrel. Prices in 2015 ended
the year barely above their 2014 level.
MLA: “Inflation from 1973 to 2015: $100 is worth $534 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1973-to-2015/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1973 to 2015. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1973-to-2015/