Price evolution of utility gas in the United States

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

The price of utility gas in your home may change depending on which state you live in. Some factors which affect the price are the proximity to gas reserves, the population density of your area and state-level taxes.

We have used the national average price in order to illustrate the changing trends, although specific prices might change depending on which state you live in.

Price evolution of utility gas

The average price of a therm of utility gas between 1979 and 2022 was $0.85, with the lowest price being $0.35 in 1979 and the highest $1.58 in 2022 (at least within the timeframe we have data for).

Yes, I'm sorry to say, but utility gas 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 utility gas also saw they biggest price increase since we have data, jumping $0.33, or 26.4% 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 utility gas per year

Our data source for this article was: FRED .

The absolute price of utility gas in the the United States has gone from $0.35 in 1979 to $1.58 in 2022. That's an absolute increase of $1.23, or 351.43% in a period of 43 years. (go to the next section for inflation-adjusted values).

This increment has not been linear though. During this period of 43 years the price of utility gas actually decreased year over year 14 times, in 1985, 1986, 1987, 1995, 1998, 2002, 2007, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2015, 2016, 2019.

The biggest absolute price decrease in the price of a therm of utility gas was in 2009, when the price dropped by $-0.32, or -22.22%. The biggest price increase was $0.33, or 26.4% in 2022.

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

Inflation-adjusted price of utility gas 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 utility gas in the the United States, in that same 43 years period between 1979 and 2022, but adjusting prices to inflation (aka. in today's money).

When we adjust for inflation, we see that the price of utility gas actually peaked in 2008, when it cost $2.03 (in today's money), and was at its lowest in 2016 when it sold for $1.14.

The biggest drop in adjusted price happened in 2009, when the inflation-adjusted price dropped by $-0.51 (-25.12%). Even when adjusting for inflation, the biggest price increase of utility gas was still in 2022. However, the $0.33 jump actually felt like $0.30 to the consumer due, to the effect of inflation.

The average price of utility gas during this period of time, adjusting for inflation, has been $1.49, and the most current price of $1.58 is 6.04% above that average.

Conclusion

The absolute price of utility gas has increased by $0.61 ($62.89%) in the last decade, and $1.23 (351.43%) since 1979. 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 utility gas, we see that it has varied ± 29.94% over this period of time, and is currently 6.3% more expensive than the average over these years .

Even when adjusting prices for inflation, utility gas prices are still higher in 2022 than they were in 1979. Although, considering the complexity of the economy, that price increase is not huge.

We can consider that the price of utility gas has remained maily stable over this period of time. It sure had some ups and downs, like in 2022 and 2009, but considering the magnitude and complexity of the global economy its price has mainly kept up with inflation.

FAQs about the price of utility gas in the the United States