$100 in 1975 is worth $153 in 1980,
because prices increased 53.2% over that period, an average of
8.90% a year.
$100 in 1975 has
the same buying power as
$153
in 1980
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
53.2%
Average inflation rate
8.90% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$153
Price difference ($100 base)
$53.16
CPI in 1975
53.8
CPI in 1980
82.4
Inflation in 1975
9.13%
Inflation in 1980
13.50%
$100 in 1975 → 1980
$153
$100 in 1980 → 1975
$65.29
What happened to prices between 1975 and 1980
Between 1975 and 1980, the Consumer Price Index went from 53.8 to 82.4.
Cumulatively, prices increased 53.2%, which works out to an average of
8.90% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1975 bought what
$0.65 buys in 1980: the 1975 dollar
lost 34.7% of its purchasing power over
these 5 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 1980 at the same ratio, 1.53: $1,000 becomes
$1,532, and $10,000 becomes $15,316.
Amount in 1975
Value in 1980
$1.00
$1.53
$5.00
$7.66
$10.00
$15.32
$20.00
$30.63
$50.00
$76.58
$100
$153
$500
$766
$1,000
$1,532
$5,000
$7,658
$10,000
$15,316
$100,000
$153,160
$1,000,000
$1,531,599
Inflation by spending category, 1975–1980
Between 1975 and 1980, energy rose the most, up 104.3%, while apparel rose the least, up 25.4%, against 53.2% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1975
spending costs in 1980, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1975 →
All items (CPI-U)
8.90%
$153
Energy
15.36%
$204
Transportation
10.65%
$166
Housing
9.85%
$160
Medical care
9.54%
$158
Core (all items less food & energy)
8.43%
$150
Food
7.74%
$145
Apparel
4.63%
$125
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 1975 had already become $113 by
1977, on its way to $153 in 1980; 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 the smallest rise was 5.8% in 1976.
In 1980, prices rose 13.5% and $100 from 1975 had the buying
power of $153; the year's average CPI of 82.4 is the level
behind every 1980 figure on this page.
1980 sat at the very peak of the Great Inflation. Prices rose 13.5% in that
single year, mortgage rates were climbing toward 16%, and the Federal Reserve
under Paul Volcker was administering the painful interest-rate medicine that
would finally break the inflationary spiral, at the cost of the deep 1981–82
recession. No single year looms larger in how Americans think about inflation.
MLA: “Inflation from 1975 to 1980: $100 is worth $153 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1975-to-1980/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1975 to 1980. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1975-to-1980/