Price evolution of ground beef in the United States

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

Price evolution of ground beef

The average price of a pound of ground beef between 1984 and 2023 was $2.39, with the lowest price being $1.29 in 1984 and the highest $4.81 in 2022 (at least within the timeframe we have data for).

Absolute price of ground beef per year

Our data source for this article was: FRED .

The absolute price of ground beef in the the United States has gone from $1.29 in 1984 to $4.79 in 2023. That's an absolute increase of $3.50, or 271.32% in a period of 39 years. (go to the next section for inflation-adjusted values).

This increment has not been linear though. During this period of 39 years the price of ground beef actually decreased year over year 10 times, in 1985, 1986, 1992, 1994, 1995, 2006, 2009, 2016, 2017, 2023.

The biggest absolute price decrease in the price of a pound of ground beef was in 2016, when the price dropped by $-0.42, or -10.07%. The biggest price increase was $0.50, or 14.71% in 2014.

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

Inflation-adjusted price of ground beef 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 ground beef in the the United States, in that same 39 years period between 1984 and 2023, but adjusting prices to inflation (aka. in today's money).

When we adjust for inflation, we see that the price of ground beef also peaked in 2022, when it cost $5.47 (in today's money), and was at its lowest in 1998 when it sold for $2.71.

The biggest drop in adjusted price happened in 2016, when the inflation-adjusted price dropped by $-0.56 (-10.31%). Even when adjusting for inflation, the biggest price increase of ground beef was still in 2014. However, the $0.50 jump actually felt like $0.60 to the consumer due, to the effect of inflation.

The average price of ground beef during this period of time, adjusting for inflation, has been $3.84, and the most current price of $4.79 is 24.74% above that average.

Conclusion

The absolute price of ground beef has increased by $1.39 ($40.88%) in the last decade, and $3.50 (271.32%) since 1984. 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 ground beef, we see that it has varied ± 35.98% over this period of time, and is currently 24.9% more expensive than the average over these years .

Even when adjusting prices for inflation, ground beef prices are still higher in 2023 than they were in 1984. 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 ground beef today than in the past.

FAQs about the price of ground beef in the the United States