$100 in 1973 is worth $707 in 2024,
because prices increased 606.5% over that period, an average of
3.91% a year.
$100 in 1973 has
the same buying power as
$707
in 2024
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
606.5%
Average inflation rate
3.91% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$707
Price difference ($100 base)
$607
CPI in 1973
44.4
CPI in 2024
313.689
Inflation in 1973
6.22%
Inflation in 2024
2.95%
$100 in 1973 → 2024
$707
$100 in 2024 → 1973
$14.15
What happened to prices between 1973 and 2024
Between 1973 and 2024, the Consumer Price Index went from 44.4 to 313.689.
Cumulatively, prices increased 606.5%, which works out to an average of
3.91% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1973 bought what
$0.14 buys in 2024: the 1973 dollar
lost 85.8% of its purchasing power over
these 51 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 2024 at the same ratio, 7.07: $1,000 becomes
$7,065, and $10,000 becomes $70,651.
Amount in 1973
Value in 2024
$1.00
$7.07
$5.00
$35.33
$10.00
$70.65
$20.00
$141
$50.00
$353
$100
$707
$500
$3,533
$1,000
$7,065
$5,000
$35,325
$10,000
$70,651
$100,000
$706,507
$1,000,000
$7,065,068
Inflation by spending category, 1973–2024
Between 1973 and 2024, medical care rose the most, up 1353.2%, while apparel rose the least, up 103.5%, against 606.5% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1973
spending costs in 2024, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1973 →
All items (CPI-U)
3.91%
$707
Medical care
5.39%
$1,453
Energy
4.51%
$951
Housing
4.19%
$811
Core (all items less food & energy)
3.89%
$700
Food
3.85%
$685
Transportation
3.76%
$657
Apparel
1.40%
$204
Not shown because the BLS began these indexes after 1973: recreation (1993–), education & communication (1993–).
Decade by decade: 1973 to 2024
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 1973–2024 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
2020–2024
4.93%
21.2%
$707
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1973
$100 from 1973 had already become $375 by
1999, on its way to $707 in 2024; 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: 2024
In 2024, prices rose 2.9% and $100 from 1973 had the buying
power of $707; the year's average CPI of 313.689 is the level
behind every 2024 figure on this page.
2024 brought inflation close to normal without fully reaching it. Consumer
prices rose 2.9% on average, the smallest yearly increase since 2020, and the
December-to-December rate was also 2.9%. Gasoline averaged $3.30 a gallon,
below 2023’s $3.52. Shelter stayed the biggest driver of the index, so the
pace of price growth in categories that households can’t easily avoid, such as
rent and insurance, lagged the drop in goods and energy costs.
The Federal Reserve declared progress in September, cutting its policy rate
by half a point, the first reduction since the pandemic emergency, and then
by a quarter point in November and again in December. Mortgage rates near 7%
kept the housing market frozen for many would-be buyers.
Median household income was $83,730, the federal minimum wage stayed at $7.25,
and a first-class stamp rose to 73 cents in July. After the November election,
attention turned to how announced tariffs and tax policy might affect prices
in 2025.
MLA: “Inflation from 1973 to 2024: $100 is worth $707 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1973-to-2024/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1973 to 2024. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1973-to-2024/