Gas Prices in 1994

The average price rose 1.1% in 1994, to $1.12 a gallon. After inflation it fell 1.5%, to $2.43 in 2025 dollars, lower than any earlier year in the record, including the 1986–88 lows.

The full-year effect of the October 1993 federal tax increase was included in the 1994 average, yet the pump price rose only 1.2¢. Crude oil prices were low at the start of the year and firmed from the spring. A workers’ strike in Nigeria disrupted that country’s production from April to September.

Refiners spent the year preparing for the reformulated gasoline requirement that took effect on January 1, 1995, in the areas with the worst ozone pollution. In the annual record, 1994 is part of a five-year stretch, 1991 through 1995, in which the average stayed between $1.10 and $1.14 at the pump while its value in 2025 dollars fell each year. By 1994 the real price was 50.0% below its 1981 level.

Against 1974, the 1994 pump price of $1.12 was 106.6% higher, more than double, but the real price was 31.3% lower: $2.43 in 2025 dollars, where 1974 had been $3.53.

Twenty years later the opposite held. The 2014 average was 200.9% above 1994 at the pump, roughly three times as much, and 88.4% above it in 2025 dollars. Even 2004, before most of that rise, cost 30.2% more than 1994 after inflation, and 65.9% more in current dollars.

In the record as a whole, 1994 ranks 52nd-highest in constant dollars, one of the five cheapest years, while at the pump it ranks 39th-highest. Georgia’s $0.94 was the lowest state average and the only one under a dollar; South Carolina followed at $1.00. Alaska ($1.31) moved up to second place behind Hawaii ($1.41), with the District of Columbia and Connecticut next; Missouri and Oklahoma tied for third-lowest at $1.02. Hawaii’s lead over the national average came to 29.4¢. In 2025 dollars Georgia’s 1994 price works out to $2.05, among the lowest inflation-adjusted state averages anywhere in the SEDS record.

In 1993 the U.S. annual average was $1.10, in 1994 it was $1.12, and in 1995 it was $1.14. From 1994 to 1995 the average rose 2.6% at the pump, while in constant 2025 dollars it fell 0.2% between those same years.

Looking back to 1984, the pump price was $1.11. Between 1984 and 1994 the average in constant 2025 dollars fell 29.6%. The highest U.S. annual average in constant 2025 dollars across the 56 complete years from 1970 to 2025 is $5.08, recorded in 2012. Constant-dollar figures are stated in 2025 dollars using CPI-U, while figures at the pump are not adjusted for inflation.

In 1994 the gap between the highest-priced state, Hawaii, and the lowest-priced state, Georgia, was 46.7¢. Above the U.S. average in 1994 stood 32 of 51 states, D.C. included. Hawaii's $1.41 and Georgia's $0.94 for 1994 are EIA State Energy Data System annual averages covering all grades.

The $1.12 for 1994 is approximate and covers all grades of motor gasoline, taxes included; the EIA State Energy Data System is its source.