Price evolution of apples in the United States

1. Relevance of the price of apples
2. Price evolution of apples
   1. Absolute price of apples per year
   2. Inflation adjusted price of apples per year
3. Conclusion
4. FAQs about apples's price in the the United States
5. Price evolution table and full chart

There are many types of apples, and each type can vary in price. In this article we have considered the Red Delicious apple, which is a type of apple originally from Iowa (1872), and was the most cultivated apple in the US from 1968 to 2018.

Before moving on, it is also important to highight dat our data set of prices for apples has some gaps. From the 43 year period we will be looking at between 1980 and 2023 there are 6 years we do not have data for. These years are 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020, 2021, 2022. So please keep that in mind moving forward.

Price evolution of apples

The average price of a pound of apples between 1980 and 2023 was $0.97, with the lowest price being $0.63 in 1980 and the highest $1.56 in 2023 (at least within the timeframe we have data for).

Yes, I'm sorry to say, but apples in the United States has never been as expensive as it is today. However, if you look at the inflation adjusted price, a pound of apples actually peaked in 1980 at $2.67 (in today's money).

Let's take a closer look at the data in the tables below:

Absolute price of apples per year

Our data source for this article was: Federal Reserve Economic Data .

The absolute price of apples in the the United States has gone from $0.63 in 1980 to $1.56 in 2023. That's an absolute increase of $0.93, or 147.62% in a period of 43 years. (go to the next section for inflation-adjusted values).

This increment has not been linear though. During this period of 43 years the price of apples actually decreased year over year 13 times, in 1981, 1983, 1987, 1989, 1993, 1994, 1997, 1999, 2001, 2005, 2009, 2014, 2017.

The biggest absolute price decrease in the price of a pound of apples was in 2017, when the price dropped by $-1.44, or -100%. The biggest price increase was $0.20, or 17.86% in 2008.

So yes, it's had its ups and downs, but overall, price increases outweight the deceases, making apples pricier than it used to be.

Inflation-adjusted price of apples per year

As accurate as the information above might be, it can also be somehow deceiving. This is because the value of money changes over time, usually decreasing. That means that $1 of today's money cannot buy as much as $1 in the past. This phenomenon is called inflation, and can make it complicated to compare historical pricing data. Luckily, we can adjust for it and calculate what a dollar value of the past would be equal to in today's money.

So let's not take a look at the evolution of the price of apples in the the United States, in that same 43 years period between 1980 and 2023, but adjusting prices to inflation (aka. in today's money).

When we adjust for inflation, we see that the price of apples actually peaked in 1980, when it cost $2.67 (in today's money), and was at its lowest in 2005 when it sold for $1.55.

The biggest drop in adjusted price happened in 2017, when the inflation-adjusted price dropped by $-1.87 (-100%). The biggest spike in adjusted price was in 1991 when it jumped by $0.31 (17.32%).

The average price of apples during this period of time, adjusting for inflation, has been $1.86, and the most current price of $1.56 is 16.13% below that average. Enjoy it while it lasts!

Conclusion

The absolute price of apples has increased by $0.17 ($12.23%) in the last decade, and $0.93 (147.62%) since 1980. But that comes as no surprise, as prices always tend to increase over time due to inflation.

Now, as we've explained earlier, the absolute price of a product does not necessarily represent its affordability fairly. For that we have to look at its inflation adjusted price, or in other words, the price evolution in today's money.

When we look at the inflation-adjusted price of apples, we see that it has varied ± 71.75% over this period of time, and is currently 16.15% cheaper than the average over these years.

So not everything is bad news after all!

Even at $1.56 (per pound), apples is actually more afordable in 2023 than it was in 1980.

So if there had to be one single take away from this article it would be this: The average person has to make less of an economic effort to purchase apples today than in the past.

That being said, the current price of apples might be somehow close to what it was in 1980 (in today's money, of course), but it has had so much volatily over the years that it's really hard to predict how it might evolve from here.

FAQs about the price of apples in the the United States