$100 in 1973 is worth $566 in 2018,
because prices increased 465.6% over that period, an average of
3.93% a year.
$100 in 1973 has
the same buying power as
$566
in 2018
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
465.6%
Average inflation rate
3.93% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$566
Price difference ($100 base)
$466
CPI in 1973
44.4
CPI in 2018
251.107
Inflation in 1973
6.22%
Inflation in 2018
2.44%
$100 in 1973 → 2018
$566
$100 in 2018 → 1973
$17.68
What happened to prices between 1973 and 2018
Between 1973 and 2018, the Consumer Price Index went from 44.4 to 251.107.
Cumulatively, prices increased 465.6%, which works out to an average of
3.93% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1973 bought what
$0.18 buys in 2018: the 1973 dollar
lost 82.3% of its purchasing power over
these 45 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 2018 at the same ratio, 5.66: $1,000 becomes
$5,656, and $10,000 becomes $56,556.
Amount in 1973
Value in 2018
$1.00
$5.66
$5.00
$28.28
$10.00
$56.56
$20.00
$113
$50.00
$283
$100
$566
$500
$2,828
$1,000
$5,656
$5,000
$28,278
$10,000
$56,556
$100,000
$565,556
$1,000,000
$5,655,563
Inflation by spending category, 1973–2018
Between 1973 and 2018, medical care rose the most, up 1149.2%, while apparel rose the least, up 94.5%, against 465.6% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1973
spending costs in 2018, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1973 →
All items (CPI-U)
3.93%
$566
Medical care
5.77%
$1,249
Energy
4.57%
$748
Housing
4.17%
$627
Core (all items less food & energy)
3.92%
$565
Food
3.76%
$526
Transportation
3.69%
$511
Apparel
1.49%
$195
Not shown because the BLS began these indexes after 1973: recreation (1993–), education & communication (1993–).
Decade by decade: 1973 to 2018
Prices climbed fastest in the 1970s, averaging 9.24% a year, and slowest in the 2010s (1.78% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1973–2018 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
2010–2018
1.78%
15.2%
$566
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1973
$100 from 1973 had already become $343 by
1995, on its way to $566 in 2018; 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: 2018
In 2018, prices rose 2.4% and $100 from 1973 had the buying
power of $566; the year's average CPI of 251.107 is the level
behind every 2018 figure on this page.
2018 was the peak of the late-2010s expansion. Consumer prices rose 2.4%,
the fastest since 2011, with gasoline averaging $2.72 a gallon after a summer
high. Unemployment fell to 3.7% in September, the lowest since 1969, and median
household income reached $63,179. The median new home sold for about $331,800,
and a first-class stamp cost 50 cents. The federal minimum wage was still $7.25.
Trade policy became a price factor for the first time in decades. New tariffs
on steel, aluminum, and a growing list of Chinese goods raised costs for
manufacturers and some consumer products, and retaliation cut into exports of
soybeans and other farm goods.
The Federal Reserve, led from February by Jerome Powell, raised rates four
times to 2.25–2.50%. A stock-market drop of nearly 20% in the fourth quarter
led the Fed to signal a pause in early 2019. Oil fell from over $75 a barrel in
October to below $50 by December, which pulled headline inflation lower going
into the next year.
MLA: “Inflation from 1973 to 2018: $100 is worth $566 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1973-to-2018/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1973 to 2018. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1973-to-2018/