$100 in 1975 is worth $269 in 1993,
because prices increased 168.6% over that period, an average of
5.64% a year.
$100 in 1975 has
the same buying power as
$269
in 1993
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
168.6%
Average inflation rate
5.64% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$269
Price difference ($100 base)
$169
CPI in 1975
53.8
CPI in 1993
144.5
Inflation in 1975
9.13%
Inflation in 1993
2.99%
$100 in 1975 → 1993
$269
$100 in 1993 → 1975
$37.23
What happened to prices between 1975 and 1993
Between 1975 and 1993, the Consumer Price Index went from 53.8 to 144.5.
Cumulatively, prices increased 168.6%, which works out to an average of
5.64% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1975 bought what
$0.37 buys in 1993: the 1975 dollar
lost 62.8% of its purchasing power over
these 18 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 1993 at the same ratio, 2.69: $1,000 becomes
$2,686, and $10,000 becomes $26,859.
Amount in 1975
Value in 1993
$1.00
$2.69
$5.00
$13.43
$10.00
$26.86
$20.00
$53.72
$50.00
$134
$100
$269
$500
$1,343
$1,000
$2,686
$5,000
$13,429
$10,000
$26,859
$100,000
$268,587
$1,000,000
$2,685,874
Inflation by spending category, 1975–1993
Between 1975 and 1993, medical care rose the most, up 324.0%, while apparel rose the least, up 84.4%, against 168.6% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1975
spending costs in 1993, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1975 →
All items (CPI-U)
5.64%
$269
Medical care
8.36%
$424
Core (all items less food & energy)
5.94%
$282
Housing
5.86%
$279
Transportation
5.46%
$260
Energy
5.16%
$248
Food
4.88%
$236
Apparel
3.46%
$184
Not shown because the BLS began these indexes after 1975: recreation (1993–), education & communication (1993–).
Decade by decade: 1975 to 1993
Prices climbed fastest in the 1970s, averaging 8.90% a year, and slowest in the 1990s (3.40% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1975–1993 change:
Years
Avg. yearly inflation
Price change
$100 from 1975, at end
1975–1980
8.90%
53.2%
$153
1980–1990
4.72%
58.6%
$243
1990–1993
3.40%
10.6%
$269
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1975
$100 from 1975 had already become $193 by
1984, on its way to $269 in 1993; 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 1993, prices rose 3.0% and $100 from 1975 had the buying
power of $269; the year's average CPI of 144.5 is the level
behind every 1993 figure on this page.
By 1993, the median household earned about $31,200, gas averaged $1.11 a gallon, and a new home
cost roughly $126,500. Inflation ran at 3.0% for the year, holding close to where it had settled
the year before as the recovery slowly gathered strength. Washington spent much of the year on
two pieces of unfinished business from the recession: a deficit-reduction package, the Omnibus
Budget Reconciliation Act, that raised the top income tax rate to 39.6% to start narrowing a
budget gap left over from the 1980s, and a trade deal, the North American Free Trade Agreement,
that President Clinton signed into law in December after a contentious fight in Congress. NAFTA
phased out most tariffs between the U.S., Mexico, and Canada and took effect the following
January. The year’s other defining event had nothing to do with the economy: in February, a bomb
exploded in the World Trade Center’s parking garage, killing six people and injuring more than a
thousand. By year’s end, the pieces of the decade’s later economic story, freer trade, a
shrinking deficit, and inflation holding near 3%, were already in place.
MLA: “Inflation from 1975 to 1993: $100 is worth $269 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1975-to-1993/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1975 to 1993. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1975-to-1993/