$100 in 1973 is worth $686 in 2023,
because prices increased 586.3% over that period, an average of
3.93% a year.
$100 in 1973 has
the same buying power as
$686
in 2023
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
586.3%
Average inflation rate
3.93% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$686
Price difference ($100 base)
$586
CPI in 1973
44.4
CPI in 2023
304.702
Inflation in 1973
6.22%
Inflation in 2023
4.12%
$100 in 1973 → 2023
$686
$100 in 2023 → 1973
$14.57
What happened to prices between 1973 and 2023
Between 1973 and 2023, the Consumer Price Index went from 44.4 to 304.702.
Cumulatively, prices increased 586.3%, which works out to an average of
3.93% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1973 bought what
$0.15 buys in 2023: the 1973 dollar
lost 85.4% of its purchasing power over
these 50 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 2023 at the same ratio, 6.86: $1,000 becomes
$6,863, and $10,000 becomes $68,627.
Amount in 1973
Value in 2023
$1.00
$6.86
$5.00
$34.31
$10.00
$68.63
$20.00
$137
$50.00
$343
$100
$686
$500
$3,431
$1,000
$6,863
$5,000
$34,313
$10,000
$68,627
$100,000
$686,266
$1,000,000
$6,862,658
Inflation by spending category, 1973–2023
Between 1973 and 2023, medical care rose the most, up 1315.2%, while apparel rose the least, up 102.1%, against 586.3% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1973
spending costs in 2023, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1973 →
All items (CPI-U)
3.93%
$686
Medical care
5.44%
$1,415
Energy
4.64%
$964
Housing
4.19%
$777
Core (all items less food & energy)
3.90%
$676
Food
3.88%
$670
Transportation
3.81%
$648
Apparel
1.42%
$202
Not shown because the BLS began these indexes after 1973: recreation (1993–), education & communication (1993–).
Decade by decade: 1973 to 2023
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 1973–2023 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
2020–2023
5.59%
17.7%
$686
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1973
$100 from 1973 had already become $361 by
1997, on its way to $686 in 2023; 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: 2023
In 2023, prices rose 4.1% and $100 from 1973 had the buying
power of $686; the year's average CPI of 304.702 is the level
behind every 2023 figure on this page.
2023 was the year inflation came down without a recession. Consumer prices
rose 4.1% on average, roughly half of 2022’s 8.0%, and the December-to-December
rate fell to 3.4%. Gasoline averaged $3.52 a gallon, well below the 2022
average, and supply-chain pressure on goods eased. Shelter, restaurant meals,
and other services stayed expensive, so the CPI kept rising at a rate well
above the pre-pandemic pace.
The Federal Reserve completed its rate-hiking campaign in July, taking the
policy rate to 5.25–5.50%, the highest level in 22 years. The effects showed
up in banking: Silicon Valley Bank failed in March after rate increases eroded
the value of its bond portfolio, the second-largest bank failure in U.S.
history at the time. Despite that, unemployment stayed under 4% all year.
Median household income was $80,610 according to the Census Bureau. The
federal minimum wage stayed at $7.25, and a first-class stamp rose to 66 cents
in July.
MLA: “Inflation from 1973 to 2023: $100 is worth $686 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1973-to-2023/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1973 to 2023. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1973-to-2023/