$100 in 1973 is worth $552 in 2017,
because prices increased 452.1% over that period, an average of
3.96% a year.
$100 in 1973 has
the same buying power as
$552
in 2017
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
452.1%
Average inflation rate
3.96% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$552
Price difference ($100 base)
$452
CPI in 1973
44.4
CPI in 2017
245.12
Inflation in 1973
6.22%
Inflation in 2017
2.13%
$100 in 1973 → 2017
$552
$100 in 2017 → 1973
$18.11
What happened to prices between 1973 and 2017
Between 1973 and 2017, the Consumer Price Index went from 44.4 to 245.12.
Cumulatively, prices increased 452.1%, which works out to an average of
3.96% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1973 bought what
$0.18 buys in 2017: the 1973 dollar
lost 81.9% of its purchasing power over
these 44 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 2017 at the same ratio, 5.52: $1,000 becomes
$5,521, and $10,000 becomes $55,207.
Amount in 1973
Value in 2017
$1.00
$5.52
$5.00
$27.60
$10.00
$55.21
$20.00
$110
$50.00
$276
$100
$552
$500
$2,760
$1,000
$5,521
$5,000
$27,604
$10,000
$55,207
$100,000
$552,072
$1,000,000
$5,520,721
Inflation by spending category, 1973–2017
Between 1973 and 2017, medical care rose the most, up 1125.1%, while apparel rose the least, up 94.4%, against 452.1% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1973
spending costs in 2017, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1973 →
All items (CPI-U)
3.96%
$552
Medical care
5.86%
$1,225
Energy
4.51%
$696
Housing
4.19%
$610
Core (all items less food & energy)
3.96%
$553
Food
3.81%
$519
Transportation
3.67%
$489
Apparel
1.52%
$194
Not shown because the BLS began these indexes after 1973: recreation (1993–), education & communication (1993–).
Decade by decade: 1973 to 2017
Prices climbed fastest in the 1970s, averaging 9.24% a year, and slowest in the 2010s (1.69% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1973–2017 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
2010–2017
1.69%
12.4%
$552
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1973
$100 from 1973 had already become $343 by
1995, on its way to $552 in 2017; 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: 2017
In 2017, prices rose 2.1% and $100 from 1973 had the buying
power of $552; the year's average CPI of 245.12 is the level
behind every 2017 figure on this page.
2017 pushed consumer prices back above the Federal Reserve’s 2% target. The
CPI rose 2.1%, the first reading over 2% in five years, helped by a rebound
in energy after OPEC’s output cuts and by a storm-related spike at the pump:
Hurricane Harvey shut a large part of Gulf Coast refining in late August.
Gasoline averaged $2.42 a gallon, up from $2.14 in 2016.
Household incomes kept rising. The median household income reached $61,372,
and the median new home sold for about $322,100. The federal minimum wage
stayed at $7.25, its eighth year at that level, and a first-class stamp rose
to 49 cents.
The Fed raised rates three times, to 1.25–1.50%, and in October began
letting its bond holdings shrink. Congress passed the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act
in December, lowering the corporate rate to 21%. Even with unemployment near
4%, core inflation stayed under 2%, a puzzle that shaped Fed debates for the
next two years.
MLA: “Inflation from 1973 to 2017: $100 is worth $552 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1973-to-2017/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1973 to 2017. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1973-to-2017/