$100 in 1975 is worth $220 in 1988,
because prices increased 119.9% over that period, an average of
6.25% a year.
$100 in 1975 has
the same buying power as
$220
in 1988
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
119.9%
Average inflation rate
6.25% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$220
Price difference ($100 base)
$120
CPI in 1975
53.8
CPI in 1988
118.3
Inflation in 1975
9.13%
Inflation in 1988
4.14%
$100 in 1975 → 1988
$220
$100 in 1988 → 1975
$45.48
What happened to prices between 1975 and 1988
Between 1975 and 1988, the Consumer Price Index went from 53.8 to 118.3.
Cumulatively, prices increased 119.9%, which works out to an average of
6.25% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1975 bought what
$0.45 buys in 1988: the 1975 dollar
lost 54.5% of its purchasing power over
these 13 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 1988 at the same ratio, 2.20: $1,000 becomes
$2,199, and $10,000 becomes $21,989.
Amount in 1975
Value in 1988
$1.00
$2.20
$5.00
$10.99
$10.00
$21.99
$20.00
$43.98
$50.00
$110
$100
$220
$500
$1,099
$1,000
$2,199
$5,000
$10,994
$10,000
$21,989
$100,000
$219,888
$1,000,000
$2,198,885
Inflation by spending category, 1975–1988
Between 1975 and 1988, medical care rose the most, up 191.8%, while apparel rose the least, up 59.2%, against 119.9% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1975
spending costs in 1988, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1975 →
All items (CPI-U)
6.25%
$220
Medical care
8.59%
$292
Housing
6.75%
$234
Core (all items less food & energy)
6.58%
$229
Transportation
6.14%
$217
Energy
5.95%
$212
Food
5.38%
$198
Apparel
3.64%
$159
Not shown because the BLS began these indexes after 1975: recreation (1993–), education & communication (1993–).
Decade by decade: 1975 to 1988
Prices climbed fastest in the 1970s, averaging 8.90% a year, and slowest in the 1980s (4.62% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1975–1988 change:
Years
Avg. yearly inflation
Price change
$100 from 1975, at end
1975–1980
8.90%
53.2%
$153
1980–1988
4.62%
43.6%
$220
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1975
$100 from 1975 had already become $169 by
1981, on its way to $220 in 1988; 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 1988, prices rose 4.1% and $100 from 1975 had the buying
power of $220; the year's average CPI of 118.3 is the level
behind every 1988 figure on this page.
By 1988, the economic expansion that began in the ashes of the 1981-82
recession was in its sixth year, and the Federal Reserve was watching for
signs it had run too long. Inflation rose to 4.1%, up from 3.6% the year
before, while unemployment fell to its lowest level since 1974. Alan
Greenspan’s Fed responded by raising the federal funds rate through the
year, from about 6.5% to 8.5%, trying to cool demand before prices
accelerated the way they had in the 1970s. Households still felt the
difference between this expansion and the last one: gas held near 90 cents
a gallon, almost exactly its 1987 price, and median household income rose
to roughly $27,200. The one price that moved was postage, which rose from
22 to 25 cents in April, the fourth increase of the decade but a far
gentler pace than the string of increases in the late 1970s and early
1980s. In November, Vice President George H.W. Bush won the presidency on
the strength of the expansion, promising in his nomination speech to hold
the line on taxes. Both the boom and that pledge would run into trouble
within two years, as the Fed’s rate increases helped tip the economy toward
the 1990-91 recession.
MLA: “Inflation from 1975 to 1988: $100 is worth $220 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1975-to-1988/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1975 to 1988. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1975-to-1988/