Price evolution of pears in the United States

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

You'll find different types of pears at the fruit section in your supermarket, some more expensive than others. Keep in mind that prices shown in this article correspond to the Anjou Pear variety.

The Anjou pear is thought to have originated in Belgium, made its way to England in the 19th century, and eventually to America in 1842.

Before moving on, it is also important to highight dat our data set of prices for pears has some gaps. From the 42 year period we will be looking at between 1981 and 2023 there are 6 years we do not have data for. These years are 2013, 2014, 2015, 2020, 2021, 2022. So please keep that in mind moving forward.

Price evolution of pears

The average price of a pound of pears between 1981 and 2023 was $1.04, with the lowest price being $0.59 in 1981 and the highest $2.29 in 2023 (at least within the timeframe we have data for).

Yes, I'm sorry to say, but pears in the United States has never been as expensive as it is today.

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

Absolute price of pears per year

Our data source for this article was: FRED .

The absolute price of pears in the the United States has gone from $0.59 in 1981 to $2.29 in 2023. That's an absolute increase of $1.70, or 288.14% in a period of 42 years. (go to the next section for inflation-adjusted values).

This increment has not been linear though. During this period of 42 years the price of pears actually decreased year over year 16 times, in 1984, 1987, 1988, 1992, 1994, 1995, 1998, 2003, 2005, 2009, 2010, 2012, 2013, 2017, 2018, 2020.

The biggest absolute price decrease in the price of a pound of pears was in 2020, when the price dropped by $-1.59, or -100%. The biggest price increase was $0.18, or 18.18% in 2004.

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

Inflation-adjusted price of pears 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 pears in the the United States, in that same 42 years period between 1981 and 2023, but adjusting prices to inflation (aka. in today's money).

When we adjust for inflation, we see that the price of pears also peaked in 2023, when it cost $2.41 (in today's money), and was at its lowest in 1995 when it sold for $1.60.

The biggest drop in adjusted price happened in 2020, when the inflation-adjusted price dropped by $-1.95 (-100%). The biggest spike in adjusted price was in 1985 when it jumped by $0.41 (24.55%).

The average price of pears during this period of time, adjusting for inflation, has been $1.91, and the most current price of $2.29 is 19.9% above that average.

Conclusion

The absolute price of pears has increased by $1.04 ($83.20%) in the last decade, and $1.70 (288.14%) since 1981. 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 pears, we see that it has varied ± 63.07% over this period of time, and is currently 19.86% more expensive than the average over these years .

Even when adjusting prices for inflation, pears prices are still higher in 2023 than they were in 1981. Although, considering the complexity of the economy, that price increase is not huge.

That being said, the current price of pears might be somehow close to what it was in 1981 (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 pears in the the United States