$100 in 1975 is worth $303 in 1998,
because prices increased 203.0% over that period, an average of
4.94% a year.
$100 in 1975 has
the same buying power as
$303
in 1998
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
203.0%
Average inflation rate
4.94% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$303
Price difference ($100 base)
$203
CPI in 1975
53.8
CPI in 1998
163
Inflation in 1975
9.13%
Inflation in 1998
1.56%
$100 in 1975 → 1998
$303
$100 in 1998 → 1975
$33.01
What happened to prices between 1975 and 1998
Between 1975 and 1998, the Consumer Price Index went from 53.8 to 163.
Cumulatively, prices increased 203.0%, which works out to an average of
4.94% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1975 bought what
$0.33 buys in 1998: the 1975 dollar
lost 67.0% of its purchasing power over
these 23 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 1998 at the same ratio, 3.03: $1,000 becomes
$3,030, and $10,000 becomes $30,297.
Amount in 1975
Value in 1998
$1.00
$3.03
$5.00
$15.15
$10.00
$30.30
$20.00
$60.59
$50.00
$151
$100
$303
$500
$1,515
$1,000
$3,030
$5,000
$15,149
$10,000
$30,297
$100,000
$302,974
$1,000,000
$3,029,740
Inflation by spending category, 1975–1998
Between 1975 and 1998, medical care rose the most, up 409.7%, while apparel rose the least, up 83.4%, against 203.0% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1975
spending costs in 1998, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1975 →
All items (CPI-U)
4.94%
$303
Medical care
7.34%
$510
Core (all items less food & energy)
5.21%
$322
Housing
5.14%
$316
Transportation
4.62%
$283
Food
4.39%
$269
Energy
3.96%
$244
Apparel
2.67%
$183
Not shown because the BLS began these indexes after 1975: recreation (1993–), education & communication (1993–).
Decade by decade: 1975 to 1998
Prices climbed fastest in the 1970s, averaging 8.90% a year, and slowest in the 1990s (2.80% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1975–1998 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
1990–1998
2.80%
24.7%
$303
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1975
$100 from 1975 had already become $204 by
1986, on its way to $303 in 1998; 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 1.6% in 1998.
In 1998, prices rose 1.6% and $100 from 1975 had the buying
power of $303; the year's average CPI of 163 is the level
behind every 1998 figure on this page.
The median household earned about $38,900 in 1998, gas averaged just $1.06 a gallon, its
cheapest of the decade, and a new home cost roughly $152,500. Inflation ran at 1.6% for the
year, the lowest of the 1990s, as a glut of crude oil, worsened by weak demand from Asia’s
slowdown, pushed prices below $11 a barrel by December and pulled pump prices down with them.
The calm at home came alongside real turmoil abroad: in August, Russia devalued the ruble and
defaulted on its domestic debt, rattling markets already unsettled by the Asian financial
crisis, and in September the hedge fund Long-Term Capital Management collapsed after its highly
leveraged bets went bad, prompting the Federal Reserve to organize a private-sector bailout by
more than a dozen banks to prevent a disorderly unwinding of its roughly $100 billion in
positions. The Fed also cut interest rates three times that fall, in September, October, and
November, an insurance policy against the global financial turmoil spreading to the U.S.
economy. Cheap oil and a well-timed set of rate cuts left 1998 as a year the U.S. economy
absorbed two foreign financial crises without much of a dent at home.
MLA: “Inflation from 1975 to 1998: $100 is worth $303 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1975-to-1998/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1975 to 1998. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1975-to-1998/