Price evolution of gold in the United States

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

Price evolution of gold

The average price of a troy ounce of gold between 1960 and 2016 was $424, with the lowest price being $35.27 in 1960 and the highest $1,669 in 2012 (at least within the timeframe we have data for).

Absolute price of gold per year

Our data source for this article was: National Mining Asociation .

The absolute price of gold in the the United States has gone from $35.27 in 1960 to $1,251 in 2016. That's an absolute increase of $1,215, or 3446.19% in a period of 56 years. (go to the next section for inflation-adjusted values).

This increment has not been linear though. During this period of 56 years the price of gold actually decreased year over year 22 times, in 1961, 1962, 1963, 1967, 1970, 1976, 1981, 1982, 1984, 1985, 1988, 1989, 1991, 1992, 1995, 1997, 1998, 1999, 2001, 2013, 2014, 2015.

The biggest absolute price decrease in the price of a troy ounce of gold was in 2013, when the price dropped by $-258, or -15.44%. The biggest price increase was $347, or 28.34% in 2011.

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

Inflation-adjusted price of gold 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 gold in the the United States, in that same 56 years period between 1960 and 2016, but adjusting prices to inflation (aka. in today's money).

When we adjust for inflation, we see that the price of gold actually peaked in 1980, when it cost $2,034 (in today's money), and was at its lowest in 1970 when it sold for $236.

The biggest drop in adjusted price happened in 1981, when the inflation-adjusted price dropped by $-694 (-34.13%). The biggest spike in adjusted price was in 1980 when it jumped by $908 (80.66%).

The average price of gold during this period of time, adjusting for inflation, has been $733, and the most current price of $1,251 is 70.61% above that average.

Conclusion

The absolute price of gold has increased by $647 ($107%) in the last decade, and $1,215 (3446.19%) 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 gold, we see that it has varied ± 122.67% over this period of time, and is currently 70.61% more expensive than the average over these years .

Even when adjusting prices for inflation, gold prices are still higher in 2016 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 gold today than in the past.

FAQs about the price of gold in the the United States