$100 in 1974 is worth $525 in 2020,
because prices increased 425.0% over that period, an average of
3.67% a year.
$100 in 1974 has
the same buying power as
$525
in 2020
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
425.0%
Average inflation rate
3.67% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$525
Price difference ($100 base)
$425
CPI in 1974
49.3
CPI in 2020
258.811
Inflation in 1974
11.04%
Inflation in 2020
1.23%
$100 in 1974 → 2020
$525
$100 in 2020 → 1974
$19.05
What happened to prices between 1974 and 2020
Between 1974 and 2020, the Consumer Price Index went from 49.3 to 258.811.
Cumulatively, prices increased 425.0%, which works out to an average of
3.67% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1974 bought what
$0.19 buys in 2020: the 1974 dollar
lost 81.0% of its purchasing power over
these 46 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 2020 at the same ratio, 5.25: $1,000 becomes
$5,250, and $10,000 becomes $52,497.
Amount in 1974
Value in 2020
$1.00
$5.25
$5.00
$26.25
$10.00
$52.50
$20.00
$105
$50.00
$262
$100
$525
$500
$2,625
$1,000
$5,250
$5,000
$26,249
$10,000
$52,497
$100,000
$524,972
$1,000,000
$5,249,716
Inflation by spending category, 1974–2020
Between 1974 and 2020, medical care rose the most, up 1123.8%, while apparel rose the least, up 70.1%, against 425.0% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1974
spending costs in 2020, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1974 →
All items (CPI-U)
3.67%
$525
Medical care
5.60%
$1,224
Housing
3.95%
$593
Core (all items less food & energy)
3.74%
$542
Energy
3.64%
$517
Food
3.49%
$485
Transportation
3.27%
$440
Apparel
1.16%
$170
Not shown because the BLS began these indexes after 1974: recreation (1993–), education & communication (1993–).
Decade by decade: 1974 to 2020
Prices climbed fastest in the 1970s, averaging 8.94% a year, and slowest in the 2010s (1.73% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1974–2020 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
2000–2010
2.39%
26.6%
$442
2010–2020
1.73%
18.7%
$525
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1974
$100 from 1974 had already become $318 by
1996, on its way to $525 in 2020; 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: 2020
In 2020, prices rose 1.2% and $100 from 1974 had the buying
power of $525; the year's average CPI of 258.811 is the level
behind every 2020 figure on this page.
2020 was the year the pandemic rewired the price data without triggering the
inflation spike that followed it. Consumer prices rose just 1.2% for the
year, the mildest pace since 2015, as COVID-19 lockdowns emptied roads,
closed airports, and crushed energy demand. Oil told the starkest story: on
April 20, U.S. crude futures fell to about negative $37 a barrel, the first
negative settlement in the market’s history, as storage capacity ran out and no one
wanted the physical barrels. Gasoline followed it down, falling to about
$1.80 a gallon nationally that month before recovering to average $2.17 for
the year. Grocery prices moved the other way: pantry stocking and
meatpacking-plant disruptions pushed food-at-home costs up faster than
usual, a rare case of food and energy pulling the index in opposite
directions. Washington answered with the $2.2 trillion CARES Act, signed
March 27, which sent $1,200 payments to most adults and added $600 a week
to unemployment benefits as states ordered widespread business closures.
The Federal Reserve cut its policy rate to near zero in two emergency moves
that same month and pledged to buy Treasury and mortgage bonds “in the
amounts needed” to keep credit markets working, an open-ended commitment
beyond even its 2008 response. None of it showed up in the CPI yet: the
stimulus, the supply shocks, and the reopening whiplash that followed would
build into the fastest inflation in four decades over the next two years.
MLA: “Inflation from 1974 to 2020: $100 is worth $525 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1974-to-2020/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1974 to 2020. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1974-to-2020/