$100 in 1973 is worth $659 in 2022,
because prices increased 559.1% over that period, an average of
3.92% a year.
$100 in 1973 has
the same buying power as
$659
in 2022
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
559.1%
Average inflation rate
3.92% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$659
Price difference ($100 base)
$559
CPI in 1973
44.4
CPI in 2022
292.655
Inflation in 1973
6.22%
Inflation in 2022
8.00%
$100 in 1973 → 2022
$659
$100 in 2022 → 1973
$15.17
What happened to prices between 1973 and 2022
Between 1973 and 2022, the Consumer Price Index went from 44.4 to 292.655.
Cumulatively, prices increased 559.1%, which works out to an average of
3.92% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1973 bought what
$0.15 buys in 2022: the 1973 dollar
lost 84.8% of its purchasing power over
these 49 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 2022 at the same ratio, 6.59: $1,000 becomes
$6,591, and $10,000 becomes $65,913.
Amount in 1973
Value in 2022
$1.00
$6.59
$5.00
$32.96
$10.00
$65.91
$20.00
$132
$50.00
$330
$100
$659
$500
$3,296
$1,000
$6,591
$5,000
$32,957
$10,000
$65,913
$100,000
$659,133
$1,000,000
$6,591,329
Inflation by spending category, 1973–2022
Between 1973 and 2022, medical care rose the most, up 1308.6%, while apparel rose the least, up 96.7%, against 559.1% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1973
spending costs in 2022, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1973 →
All items (CPI-U)
3.92%
$659
Medical care
5.55%
$1,409
Energy
4.84%
$1,015
Housing
4.14%
$730
Transportation
3.88%
$646
Core (all items less food & energy)
3.88%
$645
Food
3.84%
$634
Apparel
1.39%
$197
Not shown because the BLS began these indexes after 1973: recreation (1993–), education & communication (1993–).
Decade by decade: 1973 to 2022
Prices climbed fastest in the 1970s, averaging 9.24% a year, and slowest in the 2010s (1.73% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1973–2022 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
2010–2020
1.73%
18.7%
$583
2020–2022
6.34%
13.1%
$659
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1973
$100 from 1973 had already become $361 by
1997, on its way to $659 in 2022; 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: 2022
In 2022, prices rose 8.0% and $100 from 1973 had the buying
power of $659; the year's average CPI of 292.655 is the level
behind every 2022 figure on this page.
2022 was the year inflation returned. Consumer prices rose 8.0% on average,
the worst since 1981, driven by pandemic-era supply chains, stimulus-fueled
demand, and an energy shock from the war in Ukraine. Gas briefly topped $5 a
gallon nationally for the first time ever, and “inflation” became the
top-ranked economic concern in nearly every poll of American households.
MLA: “Inflation from 1973 to 2022: $100 is worth $659 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1973-to-2022/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1973 to 2022. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1973-to-2022/