$100 in 1975 is worth $106 in 1976,
because prices increased 5.8% over that period, an average of
5.76% a year.
$100 in 1975 has
the same buying power as
$106
in 1976
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
5.8%
Average inflation rate
5.76% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$106
Price difference ($100 base)
$5.76
CPI in 1975
53.8
CPI in 1976
56.9
Inflation in 1975
9.13%
Inflation in 1976
5.76%
$100 in 1975 → 1976
$106
$100 in 1976 → 1975
$94.55
What happened to prices between 1975 and 1976
Between 1975 and 1976, the Consumer Price Index went from 53.8 to 56.9.
Cumulatively, prices increased 5.8%, which works out to an average of
5.76% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1975 bought what
$0.95 buys in 1976: the 1975 dollar
lost 5.4% of its purchasing power over
these 1 years.
Consumer prices rose 9.1% in 1975, easing slightly from 1974’s
11.0% but still running far above anything the country had experienced before
the decade began. The recession that started in November 1973, the deepest
since the Great Depression, bottomed out that March, yet unemployment kept
climbing through the year and touched 9%, a combination of high inflation and
high joblessness that had no precedent in the postwar data. Vietnam ended
that April 30, when North Vietnamese forces captured Saigon and the last
Americans were evacuated by helicopter from the U.S. embassy roof. Fiscal
strain hit closer to home too: New York City, facing bankruptcy after years
of borrowing to paper over budget gaps, asked Washington for help that
October. President Ford’s initial refusal produced the Daily News headline
“Ford to City: Drop Dead,” though he ultimately signed a federal loan package
that December. Amid the gloom, Bill Gates and Paul Allen founded Microsoft
that April in Albuquerque, New Mexico, to sell a version of the BASIC
programming language for the Altair 8800, one of the first personal
computers sold to hobbyists. A median household earned $11,800 in 1975, a new
home sold for a median $39,300, and first-class postage held at 10 cents,
unchanged since 1974’s increase. Consumer prices stood 443.4%
above their 1913 level, with the decade barely past its
midpoint.
Every 1975 amount converts to 1976 at the same ratio, 1.06: $1,000 becomes
$1,058, and $10,000 becomes $10,576.
Amount in 1975
Value in 1976
$1.00
$1.06
$5.00
$5.29
$10.00
$10.58
$20.00
$21.15
$50.00
$52.88
$100
$106
$500
$529
$1,000
$1,058
$5,000
$5,288
$10,000
$10,576
$100,000
$105,762
$1,000,000
$1,057,621
Inflation by spending category, 1975–1976
Between 1975 and 1976, transportation rose the most, up 10.0%, while food rose the least, up 3.0%, against 5.8% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1975
spending costs in 1976, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1975 →
All items (CPI-U)
5.76%
$106
Transportation
9.98%
$110
Medical care
9.47%
$109
Energy
7.13%
$107
Core (all items less food & energy)
6.49%
$106
Housing
6.11%
$106
Apparel
3.72%
$104
Food
3.01%
$103
Not shown because the BLS began these indexes after 1975: recreation (1993–), education & communication (1993–).
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1975
$100 from 1975grew to $106 by 1976; each row
shows the CPI, that year's inflation rate, and the running value.
In 1976, prices rose 5.8% and $100 from 1975 had the buying
power of $106; the year's average CPI of 56.9 is the level
behind every 1976 figure on this page.
Consumer prices rose 5.8% in 1976, the calmest pace since 1972,
as the economy pulled out of the 1973-75 recession and price growth settled
to roughly half its 1974 peak. The recovery gave Americans
room to celebrate: tall ships filled New York Harbor and fireworks lit cities
nationwide on July 4 for the country’s bicentennial, a rare moment of shared
celebration after Vietnam and Watergate. Politically, Jimmy Carter, a former
Georgia governor running as a Washington outsider, defeated incumbent Gerald
Ford that November, campaigning on restoring trust in government and bringing
down inflation and unemployment together. In a California garage, Steve
Jobs, Steve Wozniak, and Ronald Wayne founded Apple Computer that April to
sell the Apple I, a bare circuit board aimed at electronics hobbyists, a
business that looked far from consequential at the time. First-class
postage, which had risen to 13 cents that past December 31, held there
through the year, the longest stretch without a rate change since the Postal
Service’s creation. A median household earned $12,686 in 1976, a new home
sold for a median $44,200, and gas averaged 59 cents a gallon. Consumer
prices stood 474.7% above their 1913 level, a calm interlude
before inflation turned back up.
MLA: “Inflation from 1975 to 1976: $100 is worth $106 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1975-to-1976/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1975 to 1976. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1975-to-1976/