Price evolution of flour in the United States

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

flour 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 5 pounds of flour, 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 flour has some gaps. From the 63 year period we will be looking at between 1960 and 2023 there are 12 years we do not have data for. These years are 1963, 1964, 1967, 1968, 1972, 1973, 1974, 1975, 1976, 1977, 1978, 1979. So please keep that in mind moving forward.

Price evolution of flour

The average price of 5 pounds of flour between 1960 and 2023 was $1.54, with the lowest price being $0.55 in 1960 and the highest $2.73 in 2023 (at least within the timeframe we have data for).

Yes, I'm sorry to say, but flour in the United States has never been as expensive as it is today. However, if you look at the inflation adjusted price, 5 pounds of flour actually peaked in 1960 at $5.81 (in today's money).

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

Absolute price of flour per year

We collected data from several sources in order to write this article. You can check such sources at: Info please and Fedral Reseve Economic Data .

The absolute price of flour in the the United States has gone from $0.55 in 1960 to $2.73 in 2023. That's an absolute increase of $2.18, or 396.36% in a period of 63 years. (go to the next section for inflation-adjusted values).

This increment has not been linear though. During this period of 63 years the price of flour actually decreased year over year 24 times, in 1961, 1963, 1967, 1971, 1972, 1983, 1984, 1985, 1986, 1987, 1991, 1993, 1994, 1998, 1999, 2000, 2004, 2009, 2010, 2015, 2017, 2018, 2019, 2021.

The biggest absolute price decrease in the price of 5 pounds of flour was in 1967, when the price dropped by $-0.55, or -100%. The biggest price increase was $0.74, or 41.11% in 2008.

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

Inflation-adjusted price of flour 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 flour in the the United States, in that same 63 years period between 1960 and 2023, but adjusting prices to inflation (aka. in today's money).

When we adjust for inflation, we see that the price of flour actually peaked in 1960, when it cost $5.81 (in today's money), and was at its lowest in 2021 when it sold for $2.40.

The biggest drop in adjusted price happened in 1967, when the inflation-adjusted price dropped by $-5.38 (-100%). The biggest spike in adjusted price was in 1970 when it jumped by $2.05 (79.77%).

The average price of flour during this period of time, adjusting for inflation, has been $3.30, and the most current price of $2.73 is 17.27% below that average. Enjoy it while it lasts!

Conclusion

The absolute price of flour has increased by $0.12 ($4.60%) in the last decade, and $2.18 (396.36%) since 1960. 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 flour, we see that it has varied ± 88.01% over this period of time, and is currently 17.29% cheaper than the average over these years.

So not everything is bad news after all!

Even at $2.73 (per 5.00 pounds), flour is actually more afordable in 2023 than it was in 1960.

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 flour today than in the past.

That being said, the current price of flour might be somehow close to what it was in 1960 (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 flour in the the United States