$100 in 1974 is worth $435 in 2009,
because prices increased 335.2% over that period, an average of
4.29% a year.
$100 in 1974 has
the same buying power as
$435
in 2009
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
335.2%
Average inflation rate
4.29% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$435
Price difference ($100 base)
$335
CPI in 1974
49.3
CPI in 2009
214.537
Inflation in 1974
11.04%
Inflation in 2009
-0.36%
$100 in 1974 → 2009
$435
$100 in 2009 → 1974
$22.98
What happened to prices between 1974 and 2009
Between 1974 and 2009, the Consumer Price Index went from 49.3 to 214.537.
Cumulatively, prices increased 335.2%, which works out to an average of
4.29% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1974 bought what
$0.23 buys in 2009: the 1974 dollar
lost 77.0% of its purchasing power over
these 35 years.
1974 was the year the postwar economy broke its old rules. Consumer prices
rose 11.0%, the fastest annual increase since 1947, as the Arab oil embargo
that ran from October 1973 to March 1974 roughly quadrupled the price of
crude oil worldwide. Gasoline, which had averaged 38.5 cents a gallon in
1973, jumped to 53.2 cents, and shortages forced many states into odd-even
rationing at the pump. Nixon’s wage and price controls, in place in some form
since 1971, expired at the end of April, removing the last brake on prices
just as the oil shock hit. Nixon himself resigned in August over Watergate,
and Gerald Ford’s response to inflation, a voluntary “Whip Inflation Now”
campaign built around lapel buttons, became a symbol of how little
conventional politics could do against the problem. Prices kept climbing even
as the economy weakened: a recession that started in November 1973 dragged
on, the Dow fell to a bear-market bottom of 577.60 in December, and
unemployment was already rising toward the 9% it would reach in 1975. The
combination of rising prices and a shrinking economy gave the decade its
name: stagflation.
Every 1974 amount converts to 2009 at the same ratio, 4.35: $1,000 becomes
$4,352, and $10,000 becomes $43,517.
Amount in 1974
Value in 2009
$1.00
$4.35
$5.00
$21.76
$10.00
$43.52
$20.00
$87.03
$50.00
$218
$100
$435
$500
$2,176
$1,000
$4,352
$5,000
$21,758
$10,000
$43,517
$100,000
$435,166
$1,000,000
$4,351,663
Inflation by spending category, 1974–2009
Between 1974 and 2009, medical care rose the most, up 785.9%, while apparel rose the least, up 73.0%, against 335.2% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1974
spending costs in 2009, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1974 →
All items (CPI-U)
4.29%
$435
Medical care
6.43%
$886
Energy
4.75%
$507
Housing
4.55%
$474
Core (all items less food & energy)
4.35%
$444
Food
4.01%
$396
Transportation
3.98%
$391
Apparel
1.58%
$173
Not shown because the BLS began these indexes after 1974: recreation (1993–), education & communication (1993–).
Decade by decade: 1974 to 2009
Prices climbed fastest in the 1970s, averaging 8.94% a year, and slowest in the 2000s (2.47% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1974–2009 change:
Years
Avg. yearly inflation
Price change
$100 from 1974, at end
1974–1980
8.94%
67.1%
$167
1980–1990
4.72%
58.6%
$265
1990–2000
2.80%
31.8%
$349
2000–2009
2.47%
24.6%
$435
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1974
$100 from 1974 had already become $285 by
1992, on its way to $435 in 2009; each row shows the CPI, that
year's inflation rate, and the running value.
Within the span, inflation peaked at 13.5% in 1980, and prices fell 0.4% in 2009, the deepest deflation of the period.
Long periods are sampled every 2 years; the calculator above covers any pair of years.
The destination year: 2009
In 2009, prices fell 0.4% and $100 from 1974 had the buying
power of $435; the year's average CPI of 214.537 is the level
behind every 2009 figure on this page.
2009 is the rarest kind of year in the modern price data: one where the cost
of living went down. The CPI fell 0.4%, the first full-year deflation
since 1955, as the Great Recession hollowed out demand and oil unwound from
its $147 spike the summer before. Gasoline that had cost over $4 a gallon in
July 2008 averaged $2.35 in 2009, and that energy collapse dragged the
12-month inflation rate to −2.1% by July, the deepest reading since 1950.
Policymakers treated falling prices not as relief but as a warning: deflation
raises the real weight of debt precisely when households are drowning in it,
which is why the Federal Reserve pinned interest rates near zero, began buying
bonds by the hundreds of billions, and Washington passed a $787 billion
stimulus. The medicine took: prices stabilized within a year, and 2009 remains
the textbook case of why central banks fear deflation more than moderate
inflation.
MLA: “Inflation from 1974 to 2009: $100 is worth $435 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1974-to-2009/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1974 to 2009. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1974-to-2009/