$100 in 1975 is worth $292 in 1996,
because prices increased 191.6% over that period, an average of
5.23% a year.
$100 in 1975 has
the same buying power as
$292
in 1996
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
191.6%
Average inflation rate
5.23% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$292
Price difference ($100 base)
$192
CPI in 1975
53.8
CPI in 1996
156.9
Inflation in 1975
9.13%
Inflation in 1996
2.95%
$100 in 1975 → 1996
$292
$100 in 1996 → 1975
$34.29
What happened to prices between 1975 and 1996
Between 1975 and 1996, the Consumer Price Index went from 53.8 to 156.9.
Cumulatively, prices increased 191.6%, which works out to an average of
5.23% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1975 bought what
$0.34 buys in 1996: the 1975 dollar
lost 65.7% of its purchasing power over
these 21 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 1996 at the same ratio, 2.92: $1,000 becomes
$2,916, and $10,000 becomes $29,164.
Amount in 1975
Value in 1996
$1.00
$2.92
$5.00
$14.58
$10.00
$29.16
$20.00
$58.33
$50.00
$146
$100
$292
$500
$1,458
$1,000
$2,916
$5,000
$14,582
$10,000
$29,164
$100,000
$291,636
$1,000,000
$2,916,357
Inflation by spending category, 1975–1996
Between 1975 and 1996, medical care rose the most, up 380.4%, while apparel rose the least, up 81.7%, against 191.6% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1975
spending costs in 1996, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1975 →
All items (CPI-U)
5.23%
$292
Medical care
7.76%
$480
Core (all items less food & energy)
5.49%
$307
Housing
5.39%
$301
Transportation
5.12%
$285
Energy
4.68%
$262
Food
4.58%
$256
Apparel
2.88%
$182
Not shown because the BLS began these indexes after 1975: recreation (1993–), education & communication (1993–).
Decade by decade: 1975 to 1996
Prices climbed fastest in the 1970s, averaging 8.90% a year, and slowest in the 1990s (3.09% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1975–1996 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
1990–1996
3.09%
20.0%
$292
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1975
$100 from 1975 had already become $200 by
1985, on its way to $292 in 1996; 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 1996, prices rose 3.0% and $100 from 1975 had the buying
power of $292; the year's average CPI of 156.9 is the level
behind every 1996 figure on this page.
The median household earned about $35,500 in 1996, gas averaged $1.23 a gallon, up noticeably
from the mid-decade lull, and a new home cost roughly $140,000. Inflation ran at 3.0% for the
year, ticking back up from 1995 as energy prices firmed. Washington passed two of the decade’s
more consequential laws that year: in February, the Telecommunications Act rewrote the rules for
phone, cable, and broadcast media for the first time since 1934, opening local markets to
competition and easing ownership limits; in August, a welfare overhaul ended the federal
guarantee of cash assistance, replacing it with block grants to states and time limits on
benefits. In October, the federal minimum wage rose to $4.75 an hour, its first increase in five
years and the opening step of a two-part law that would take it to $5.15 the following
September. Two sweeping new laws and a minimum wage finally on the move again made 1996 a year
that changed more about how the economy was governed than about how fast prices moved.
MLA: “Inflation from 1975 to 1996: $100 is worth $292 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1975-to-1996/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1975 to 1996. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1975-to-1996/