See The Price Of Gas The Year You Were Born

Check out the actual prices and the prices adjusted for inflation.

By: Anthony Alaniz

Mar 29, 2022 at 2:06pm ET

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High gas prices continue to make consumers grumble as politicians fight over a solution. Russia’s invasion of Ukraine last month injected a jolt of instability into the fuel market. The cost of a barrel of oil spiked in early March, leading to a rise in prices at the pump.

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The high prices have some reminiscing about cheaper gas from their childhoods, though, like most memories, those of cheap gas are jaded, too. Gas has always been an unstable commodity, with fluctuating prices dating back to the 1940s.

Those fluctuations look less extreme when the prices are adjusted for inflation. Data from the last 80 years shows that gas prices have never been stable, but those sharp rises and falls are smoothed out when factoring in inflation. Check out the numbers below to see if you’re paying more today for gas than when you first started driving.

1940s

Year	Actual Price	Price With Inflation
1940	$0.16	$3.12
1941	$0.17	$3.16
1942	$0.18	$3.01
1943	$0.19	$3.00
1944	$0.19	$2.95
1945	$0.19	$2.88
1946	$0.19	$2.66
1947	$0.21	$2.57
1948	$0.24	$2.72
1949	$0.25	$2.87

1950s

Year	Actual Price	Price With Inflation
1950	$0.25	$2.83
1951	$0.26	$2.73
1952	$0.26	$2.68
1953	$0.28	$2.86
1954	$0.28	$2.84
1955	$0.29	$2.95
1956	$0.30	$3.01
1957	$0.31	$3.01
1958	$0.31	$2.93
1959	$0.31	$2.91

1960s

Year	Actual Price	Price With Inflation
1960	$0.32	$2.95
1961	$0.32	$2.92
1962	$0.32	$2.89
1963	$0.32	$2.85
1964	$0.32	$2.82
1965	$0.33	$2.86
1966	$0.34	$2.86
1967	$0.35	$2.86
1968	$0.35	$2.75
1969	$0.36	$2.68

1970s

Years	Actual Price	Price With Inflation
1970	$0.36	$2.53
1971	$0.37	$2.49
1972	$0.37	$2.42
1973	$0.41	$2.52
1974	$0.55	$3.05
1975	$0.59	$2.99
1976	$0.61	$2.93
1977	$0.66	$2.97
1978	$0.67	$2.81
1979	$0.90	$3.38

1980s

Year	Actual Price	Price With Inflation
1980	$1.25	$4.14
1981	$1.38	$4.14
1982	$1.30	$3.68
1983	$1.24	$3.40
1984	$1.21	$3.18
1985	$1.20	$3.04
1986	$0.93	$2.32
1987	$0.95	$2.28
1988	$0.95	$2.19
1989	$1.02	$2.25

1990s

Year	Actual Price	Price With Inflation
1990	$1.16	$2.42
1991	$1.14	$2.29
1992	$1.13	$2.20
1993	$1.11	$2.10
1994	$1.11	$2.04
1995	$1.15	$2.06
1996	$1.23	$2.14
1997	$1.23	$2.09
1998	$1.06	$1.78
1999	$1.17	$1.92

2000s

Year	Actual Price	Price With Inflation
2000	$1.51	$2.39
2001	$1.46	$2.25
2002	$1.36	$2.06
2003	$1.59	$2.36
2004	$1.88	$2.72
2005	$2.30	$3.22
2006	$2.59	$3.51
2007	$2.80	$3.69
2008	$3.37	$4.15
2009	$2.25	$2.99

2010s

Year	Actual Price	Price With Inflation
2010	$2.79	$3.49
2011	$3.53	$4.28
2012	$3.64	$4.33
2013	$3.53	$4.14
2014	$3.37	$3.89
2015	$2.45	$2.82
2016	$2.14	$2.43
2017	$2.41	$2.68
2018	$2.74	$2.98
2019	$2.64	$2.82