Price evolution of coca-cola in the United States

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

coca-cola is one of those products that usually commes packaged in a container, such as a box, bottle or jar. Within the context of this article, the prices we share correspond to 2 liters of coca-cola, since that is a common size you'll find it in. If the sources we use provided prices in different sizes, we have worked that data to match our standard size and provide a consistent comparison.

Before moving on, it is also important to highight dat our data set of prices for coca-cola has some gaps. From the 53 year period we will be looking at between 1970 and 2023 there are 15 years we do not have data for. These years are 1971, 1972, 1973, 1974, 1975, 1976, 1977, 1978, 1979, 1990, 1992, 1995, 2009, 2015, 2016. So please keep that in mind moving forward.

Price evolution of coca-cola

The average price of 2 liters of coca-cola between 1970 and 2023 was $1.12, with the lowest price being $0.05 in 1970 and the highest $2.69 in 2023 (at least within the timeframe we have data for).

Yes, I'm sorry to say, but coca-cola in the United States has never been as expensive as it is today.

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

Absolute price of coca-cola per year

We collected data from several sources in order to write this article. You can check such sources at: Federal Reserve Economic Data and Federal Reserve Economic Data .

The absolute price of coca-cola in the the United States has gone from $0.05 in 1970 to $2.69 in 2023. That's an absolute increase of $2.64, or 5280% in a period of 53 years. (go to the next section for inflation-adjusted values).

This increment has not been linear though. During this period of 53 years the price of coca-cola actually decreased year over year 14 times, in 1971, 1986, 1987, 1988, 1989, 1990, 1992, 1994, 1995, 2002, 2009, 2013, 2015, 2018.

The biggest absolute price decrease in the price of 2 liters of coca-cola was in 2015, when the price dropped by $-1.79, or -100%. The biggest price increase was $0.64, or 37.87% in 2022.

With the price increasing most years, it comes as no surprise that the price of coca-cola today is higher than what it used to be some years ago.

Inflation-adjusted price of coca-cola 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 coca-cola in the the United States, in that same 53 years period between 1970 and 2023, but adjusting prices to inflation (aka. in today's money).

When we adjust for inflation, we see that the price of coca-cola also peaked in 2023, when it cost $2.83 (in today's money), and was at its lowest in 1970 when it sold for $0.42.

The biggest drop in adjusted price happened in 2015, when the inflation-adjusted price dropped by $-2.37 (-100%). Even when adjusting for inflation, the biggest price increase of coca-cola was still in 2022. However, the $0.64 jump actually felt like $0.64 to the consumer due, to the effect of inflation.

The average price of coca-cola during this period of time, adjusting for inflation, has been $1.89, and the most current price of $2.69 is 42.33% above that average.

Conclusion

The absolute price of coca-cola has increased by $0.90 ($50.28%) in the last decade, and $2.64 (5280%) since 1970. 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 coca-cola, we see that it has varied ± 75.03% over this period of time, and is currently 42.64% more expensive than the average over these years .

Even when adjusting prices for inflation, coca-cola prices are still higher in 2023 than they were in 1970. And not just a bit more expensive, we are talking about a significant increase no matter how you look at it!

So if there had to be one single take away from this article it would be this: The average person has to make a bigger economic effort to purchase coca-cola today than in the past.

FAQs about the price of coca-cola in the the United States