$100 in 1975 is worth $169 in 1981,
because prices increased 69.0% over that period, an average of
9.13% a year.
$100 in 1975 has
the same buying power as
$169
in 1981
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
69.0%
Average inflation rate
9.13% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$169
Price difference ($100 base)
$68.96
CPI in 1975
53.8
CPI in 1981
90.9
Inflation in 1975
9.13%
Inflation in 1981
10.32%
$100 in 1975 → 1981
$169
$100 in 1981 → 1975
$59.19
What happened to prices between 1975 and 1981
Between 1975 and 1981, the Consumer Price Index went from 53.8 to 90.9.
Cumulatively, prices increased 69.0%, which works out to an average of
9.13% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1975 bought what
$0.59 buys in 1981: the 1975 dollar
lost 40.8% of its purchasing power over
these 6 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 1981 at the same ratio, 1.69: $1,000 becomes
$1,690, and $10,000 becomes $16,896.
Amount in 1975
Value in 1981
$1.00
$1.69
$5.00
$8.45
$10.00
$16.90
$20.00
$33.79
$50.00
$84.48
$100
$169
$500
$845
$1,000
$1,690
$5,000
$8,448
$10,000
$16,896
$100,000
$168,959
$1,000,000
$1,689,591
Inflation by spending category, 1975–1981
Between 1975 and 1981, energy rose the most, up 132.1%, while apparel rose the least, up 31.4%, against 69.0% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1975
spending costs in 1981, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1975 →
All items (CPI-U)
9.13%
$169
Energy
15.06%
$232
Transportation
10.90%
$186
Housing
10.12%
$178
Medical care
9.73%
$175
Core (all items less food & energy)
8.76%
$165
Food
7.75%
$157
Apparel
4.66%
$131
Not shown because the BLS began these indexes after 1975: recreation (1993–), education & communication (1993–).
Decade by decade: 1975 to 1981
Prices climbed fastest in the 1980s, averaging 10.32% a year, and slowest in the 1970s (8.90% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1975–1981 change:
Years
Avg. yearly inflation
Price change
$100 from 1975, at end
1975–1980
8.90%
53.2%
$153
1980–1981
10.32%
10.3%
$169
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1975
$100 from 1975 had already become $121 by
1978, on its way to $169 in 1981; 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 1981, prices rose 10.3% and $100 from 1975 had the buying
power of $169; the year's average CPI of 90.9 is the level
behind every 1981 figure on this page.
1981 was the year the inflation fever finally broke, at an extraordinary price.
Consumer prices rose 10.3%, the second year of back-to-back double-digit
inflation and the last time the U.S. would see one. To end it, Paul Volcker’s
Federal Reserve drove its policy rate above 19% and let borrowing costs go
where they may: a 30-year mortgage cost more than 18% by autumn, car loans and
business credit froze, and homebuilders mailed the Fed two-by-fours in protest.
The squeeze tipped the economy into recession in July, the deep 1981–82
downturn that would push unemployment past 10%. But it worked. Inflation fell
by nearly half within a year and to under 4% by 1983, the disinflation that
defined the following two decades. Even the price of mailing a letter told the
year’s story: postage went up twice in eight months.
MLA: “Inflation from 1975 to 1981: $100 is worth $169 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1975-to-1981/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1975 to 1981. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1975-to-1981/