$100 in 1975 is worth $298 in 1997,
because prices increased 198.3% over that period, an average of
5.09% a year.
$100 in 1975 has
the same buying power as
$298
in 1997
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
198.3%
Average inflation rate
5.09% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$298
Price difference ($100 base)
$198
CPI in 1975
53.8
CPI in 1997
160.5
Inflation in 1975
9.13%
Inflation in 1997
2.29%
$100 in 1975 → 1997
$298
$100 in 1997 → 1975
$33.52
What happened to prices between 1975 and 1997
Between 1975 and 1997, the Consumer Price Index went from 53.8 to 160.5.
Cumulatively, prices increased 198.3%, which works out to an average of
5.09% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1975 bought what
$0.34 buys in 1997: the 1975 dollar
lost 66.5% of its purchasing power over
these 22 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 1997 at the same ratio, 2.98: $1,000 becomes
$2,983, and $10,000 becomes $29,833.
Amount in 1975
Value in 1997
$1.00
$2.98
$5.00
$14.92
$10.00
$29.83
$20.00
$59.67
$50.00
$149
$100
$298
$500
$1,492
$1,000
$2,983
$5,000
$14,916
$10,000
$29,833
$100,000
$298,327
$1,000,000
$2,983,271
Inflation by spending category, 1975–1997
Between 1975 and 1997, medical care rose the most, up 393.9%, while apparel rose the least, up 83.3%, against 198.3% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1975
spending costs in 1997, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1975 →
All items (CPI-U)
5.09%
$298
Medical care
7.53%
$494
Core (all items less food & energy)
5.35%
$314
Housing
5.27%
$309
Transportation
4.93%
$288
Energy
4.53%
$265
Food
4.49%
$263
Apparel
2.79%
$183
Not shown because the BLS began these indexes after 1975: recreation (1993–), education & communication (1993–).
Decade by decade: 1975 to 1997
Prices climbed fastest in the 1970s, averaging 8.90% a year, and slowest in the 1990s (2.98% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1975–1997 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
1990–1997
2.98%
22.8%
$298
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1975
$100 from 1975 had already become $204 by
1986, on its way to $298 in 1997; 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 1997, prices rose 2.3% and $100 from 1975 had the buying
power of $298; the year's average CPI of 160.5 is the level
behind every 1997 figure on this page.
The median household earned about $37,000 in 1997, gas averaged $1.23 a gallon, and a new home
cost roughly $146,000. Inflation ran at 2.3% for the year, its lowest reading since the
mid-1980s, as a strong dollar and falling import prices helped keep costs in check at home even
as trouble built abroad. In July, Thailand devalued the baht, and the currency collapse that
followed spread within months to Indonesia, South Korea, and other Southeast Asian economies,
forcing IMF bailouts and years of recession across the region, though the crisis had little
immediate effect on U.S. prices. At home, Washington had a calmer year: in August, President
Clinton and Congress agreed on the Balanced Budget Act and the Taxpayer Relief Act, which cut
capital gains tax rates, created the Roth IRA, and set the federal budget on a path to its first
surplus in nearly three decades. In September, the federal minimum wage completed a two-step
rise to $5.15 an hour, where it would stay for a decade. Low inflation, a firming budget picture,
and a crisis unfolding an ocean away made 1997 a year the U.S. economy looked stronger than much
of the rest of the world’s.
MLA: “Inflation from 1975 to 1997: $100 is worth $298 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1975-to-1997/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1975 to 1997. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1975-to-1997/