$100 in 1975 is worth $275 in 1994,
because prices increased 175.5% over that period, an average of
5.48% a year.
$100 in 1975 has
the same buying power as
$275
in 1994
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
175.5%
Average inflation rate
5.48% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$275
Price difference ($100 base)
$175
CPI in 1975
53.8
CPI in 1994
148.2
Inflation in 1975
9.13%
Inflation in 1994
2.56%
$100 in 1975 → 1994
$275
$100 in 1994 → 1975
$36.30
What happened to prices between 1975 and 1994
Between 1975 and 1994, the Consumer Price Index went from 53.8 to 148.2.
Cumulatively, prices increased 175.5%, which works out to an average of
5.48% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1975 bought what
$0.36 buys in 1994: the 1975 dollar
lost 63.7% of its purchasing power over
these 19 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 1994 at the same ratio, 2.75: $1,000 becomes
$2,755, and $10,000 becomes $27,546.
Amount in 1975
Value in 1994
$1.00
$2.75
$5.00
$13.77
$10.00
$27.55
$20.00
$55.09
$50.00
$138
$100
$275
$500
$1,377
$1,000
$2,755
$5,000
$13,773
$10,000
$27,546
$100,000
$275,465
$1,000,000
$2,754,647
Inflation by spending category, 1975–1994
Between 1975 and 1994, medical care rose the most, up 344.2%, while apparel rose the least, up 84.0%, against 175.5% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1975
spending costs in 1994, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1975 →
All items (CPI-U)
5.48%
$275
Medical care
8.16%
$444
Core (all items less food & energy)
5.77%
$290
Housing
5.68%
$286
Transportation
5.33%
$268
Energy
4.91%
$248
Food
4.75%
$241
Apparel
3.26%
$184
Not shown because the BLS began these indexes after 1975: recreation (1993–), education & communication (1993–).
Decade by decade: 1975 to 1994
Prices climbed fastest in the 1970s, averaging 8.90% a year, and slowest in the 1990s (3.19% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1975–1994 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
1990–1994
3.19%
13.4%
$275
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1975
$100 from 1975 had already become $193 by
1984, on its way to $275 in 1994; 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 1994, prices rose 2.6% and $100 from 1975 had the buying
power of $275; the year's average CPI of 148.2 is the level
behind every 1994 figure on this page.
Gas averaged $1.11 a gallon in 1994, a new home cost roughly $130,000, and the median household
earned about $32,300. Inflation ran at 2.6% for the year, the calmest reading since the
mid-1980s, even as the Federal Reserve spent the year raising interest rates precisely to keep
it that way. Chair Alan Greenspan’s Fed lifted the federal funds rate from 3% to 5.5% over six
moves, a preemptive tightening campaign meant to head off inflation before it built rather than
react to it after the fact. The bond market, unprepared for such a rapid climb, sold off
sharply, and the higher rates rippled into places few had expected: Orange County, California,
whose investment pool had bet heavily on rates staying low, filed for bankruptcy in December
after losing an estimated $1.7 billion, the largest municipal bankruptcy in the country’s
history at the time. On the trade front, NAFTA took effect January 1, phasing out tariffs on
thousands of goods moving between the U.S., Mexico, and Canada, the start of a schedule that
would eliminate most remaining barriers over the following decade. It was a year that showed
inflation control could have its own costs, paid out in the bond market and, in Orange County’s
case, a bankruptcy court.
MLA: “Inflation from 1975 to 1994: $100 is worth $275 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1975-to-1994/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1975 to 1994. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1975-to-1994/