$100 in 1975 is worth $204 in 1986,
because prices increased 103.7% over that period, an average of
6.68% a year.
$100 in 1975 has
the same buying power as
$204
in 1986
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
103.7%
Average inflation rate
6.68% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$204
Price difference ($100 base)
$104
CPI in 1975
53.8
CPI in 1986
109.6
Inflation in 1975
9.13%
Inflation in 1986
1.86%
$100 in 1975 → 1986
$204
$100 in 1986 → 1975
$49.09
What happened to prices between 1975 and 1986
Between 1975 and 1986, the Consumer Price Index went from 53.8 to 109.6.
Cumulatively, prices increased 103.7%, which works out to an average of
6.68% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1975 bought what
$0.49 buys in 1986: the 1975 dollar
lost 50.9% of its purchasing power over
these 11 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 1986 at the same ratio, 2.04: $1,000 becomes
$2,037, and $10,000 becomes $20,372.
Amount in 1975
Value in 1986
$1.00
$2.04
$5.00
$10.19
$10.00
$20.37
$20.00
$40.74
$50.00
$102
$100
$204
$500
$1,019
$1,000
$2,037
$5,000
$10,186
$10,000
$20,372
$100,000
$203,717
$1,000,000
$2,037,175
Inflation by spending category, 1975–1986
Between 1975 and 1986, medical care rose the most, up 156.8%, while apparel rose the least, up 46.1%, against 103.7% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1975
spending costs in 1986, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1975 →
All items (CPI-U)
6.68%
$204
Medical care
8.95%
$257
Housing
7.37%
$219
Core (all items less food & energy)
7.00%
$211
Energy
6.95%
$210
Transportation
6.71%
$204
Food
5.61%
$182
Apparel
3.50%
$146
Not shown because the BLS began these indexes after 1975: recreation (1993–), education & communication (1993–).
Decade by decade: 1975 to 1986
Prices climbed fastest in the 1970s, averaging 8.90% a year, and slowest in the 1980s (4.87% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1975–1986 change:
Years
Avg. yearly inflation
Price change
$100 from 1975, at end
1975–1980
8.90%
53.2%
$153
1980–1986
4.87%
33.0%
$204
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1975
$100 from 1975 had already become $153 by
1980, on its way to $204 in 1986; 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 1.9% in 1986.
In 1986, prices rose 1.9% and $100 from 1975 had the buying
power of $204; the year's average CPI of 109.6 is the level
behind every 1986 figure on this page.
1986 delivered the decade’s biggest one-year drop in inflation, and it came
almost entirely from a single source: oil. Saudi Arabia abandoned its policy
of restraining output to prop up prices, and world crude collapsed from
about $27 a barrel to under $10 by midyear. Gasoline, which had averaged
$1.12 a gallon in 1985, fell to 86 cents. With energy costs plunging,
headline CPI inflation for the year came in at just 1.9%, the lowest annual
rate since 1965 and a striking bookend to 1980’s 13.5% peak. The relief was
uneven: prices for most goods and services outside energy kept rising at a
moderate pace, so households that didn’t drive much or heat with oil felt
less of the difference. In October, Congress passed the Tax Reform Act of
1986, a bipartisan overhaul that cut the top individual income tax rate from
50% to 28% while closing many deductions and shelters, the broadest rewrite
of the federal tax code since World War II. Between cheap gas and falling
interest rates, 1986 read like proof that the inflationary 1970s were a
closed chapter, six years after the U.S. economy had felt anything but
calm.
MLA: “Inflation from 1975 to 1986: $100 is worth $204 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1975-to-1986/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1975 to 1986. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1975-to-1986/