For decades, gas prices have been linked to the overall economy in the United States, whether we like it or not, and this has been the case for decades. In 2022, consumers have seen quite the increase in gas prices, as a result of many factors including Russia invading Ukraine, recovering from the COVID-19 pandemic, and even inflation. From TitleMax, this infographic looks at the history of gas prices in the United States to see what a gallon of gas cost each year from 1929 through 2022, along with what those costs would be today, accounting for inflation.
The data begins in 1929, at the beginning of the Great Depression. At this time, the national average gas price (dollars/gallon) was $0.21, which would be $3.59 today. Interestingly enough, while that average cost was during the Great Depression ($3.59 adjusted for inflation), it’s still substantially less than what it is in 2022, with an average price of $4.90 per gallon. In fact, the 2022 average cost per gallon is $4.90 is exactly double that of the average cost of a gallon of gas in 2020, the year that the COVID-19 pandemic changed the world forever ($2.45 per gallon of gas on average).
In 2022, gas prices surged to a near-40 year high. Prior to 2022, the average cost of a gallon of gas in the United States had not exceeded the $4 mark since 2014, when the average cost of a gallon of gas was $4.11. From 2011 through 2014, the average cost consistently stayed at over $4 per gallon, with rates of $4.54 per gallon in 2011, $4.57 per gallon in 2012, $4.39 per gallon in 2013, and $4.11 per gallon in 2014. A year later, in 2015, the average cost of a gallon of gas luckily dipped below $3.00, to $2.99.
