A gallon of (leaded) gas in the United States in 1960 cost only 31 cents! That sounds like an incredible bargain until you factor in inflation.

In 1960, 31 cents is equivalent to $2.07 in the year 2007. The national average cost of a gallon of unleaded regular gasoline in 2007 was $2.78, or about a 34% increase over the average price in 1960.

So, as expensive as gas seems today, and as much as the price had fluctuated in the past decade, the price of gasoline hasn’t really increased that much in real dollars in the past 50 years.