Price evolution of honey in the United States

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

Before moving on, it is also important to highight dat our data set of prices for honey has some gaps. From the 61 year period we will be looking at between 1960 and 2021 there are 3 years we do not have data for. These years are 1982, 1984, 1985. So please keep that in mind moving forward.

Price evolution of honey

The average price of a pound of honey between 1960 and 2021 was $0.87, with the lowest price being $0.15 in 1960 and the highest $2.41 in 2021 (at least within the timeframe we have data for).

Yes, I'm sorry to say, but honey in the United States has never been as expensive as it is today. However, if you look at the inflation adjusted price, a pound of honey actually peaked in 1974 at $3.05 (in today's money).

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

Absolute price of honey per year

Our data source for this article was: United States department of agriculture .

The absolute price of honey in the the United States has gone from $0.15 in 1960 to $2.41 in 2021. That's an absolute increase of $2.26, or 1506.67% in a period of 61 years. (go to the next section for inflation-adjusted values).

This increment has not been linear though. During this period of 61 years the price of honey actually decreased year over year 20 times, in 1962, 1966, 1970, 1975, 1976, 1979, 1982, 1984, 1987, 1989, 1994, 1997, 1998, 1999, 2000, 2004, 2011, 2015, 2018, 2019.

The biggest absolute price decrease in the price of a pound of honey was in 1982, when the price dropped by $-0.57, or -100%. The biggest price increase was $0.55, or 76.39% in 2002.

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

Inflation-adjusted price of honey 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 honey in the the United States, in that same 61 years period between 1960 and 2021, but adjusting prices to inflation (aka. in today's money).

When we adjust for inflation, we see that the price of honey actually peaked in 1974, when it cost $3.05 (in today's money), and was at its lowest in 2000 when it sold for $0.94.

The biggest drop in adjusted price happened in 1982, when the inflation-adjusted price dropped by $-1.87 (-100%). The biggest spike in adjusted price was in 1973 when it jumped by $1.18 (63.1%).

The average price of honey during this period of time, adjusting for inflation, has been $1.71, and the most current price of $2.41 is 40.94% above that average.

Conclusion

The absolute price of honey has increased by $0.84 ($53.50%) in the last decade, and $2.26 (1506.67%) 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 honey, we see that it has varied ± 89.07% over this period of time, and is currently 40.75% more expensive than the average over these years .

Even when adjusting prices for inflation, honey prices are still higher in 2021 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 honey today than in the past.

FAQs about the price of honey in the the United States