Price evolution of gasoline in the United States

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

Price evolution of gasoline

The average price of a gallon of gasoline between 1960 and 2022 was $1.45, with the lowest price being $0.31 in 1960 and the highest $4.90 in 2022 (at least within the timeframe we have data for).

Yes, I'm sorry to say, but gasoline in the United States has never been as expensive as it is today. And that's not all. I promise I'm not trying to depress you here, but in 2022 gasoline also saw they biggest price increase since we have data, jumping $1.89, or 62.79% from the previous year. Let's see how the price evolves from here. Hopefully, it will have reached a peak and will estabilize, or even decrease, in the next few years.

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

Absolute price of gasoline per year

Our data source for this article was: TitleMax .

The absolute price of gasoline in the the United States has gone from $0.31 in 1960 to $4.90 in 2022. That's an absolute increase of $4.59, or 1480.65% in a period of 62 years. (go to the next section for inflation-adjusted values).

This increment has not been linear though. During this period of 62 years the price of gasoline actually decreased year over year 19 times, in 1963, 1982, 1983, 1984, 1985, 1986, 1991, 1992, 1993, 1998, 2001, 2002, 2009, 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016, 2019, 2020.

The biggest absolute price decrease in the price of a gallon of gasoline was in 2009, when the price dropped by $-0.92, or -28.13%. The biggest price increase was $1.89, or 62.79% in 2022.

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

Inflation-adjusted price of gasoline 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 gasoline in the the United States, in that same 62 years period between 1960 and 2022, but adjusting prices to inflation (aka. in today's money).

When we adjust for inflation, we see that the price of gasoline also peaked in 2022, when it cost $5.29 (in today's money), and was at its lowest in 1998 when it sold for $1.93.

The biggest drop in adjusted price happened in 2009, when the inflation-adjusted price dropped by $-1.42 (-30.8%). Even when adjusting for inflation, the biggest price increase of gasoline was still in 2022. However, the $1.89 jump actually felt like $1.89 to the consumer due, to the effect of inflation.

The average price of gasoline during this period of time, adjusting for inflation, has been $3.13, and the most current price of $4.90 is 56.55% above that average.

Conclusion

The absolute price of gasoline has increased by $1.26 ($34.62%) in the last decade, and $4.59 (1480.65%) 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 gasoline, we see that it has varied ± 53.64% over this period of time, and is currently 56.44% more expensive than the average over these years .

Even when adjusting prices for inflation, gasoline prices are still higher in 2022 than they were in 1960. 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 gasoline today than in the past.

FAQs about the price of gasoline in the the United States