$100 in 1975 is worth $310 in 1999,
because prices increased 209.7% over that period, an average of
4.82% a year.
$100 in 1975 has
the same buying power as
$310
in 1999
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
209.7%
Average inflation rate
4.82% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$310
Price difference ($100 base)
$210
CPI in 1975
53.8
CPI in 1999
166.6
Inflation in 1975
9.13%
Inflation in 1999
2.21%
$100 in 1975 → 1999
$310
$100 in 1999 → 1975
$32.29
What happened to prices between 1975 and 1999
Between 1975 and 1999, the Consumer Price Index went from 53.8 to 166.6.
Cumulatively, prices increased 209.7%, which works out to an average of
4.82% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1975 bought what
$0.32 buys in 1999: the 1975 dollar
lost 67.7% of its purchasing power over
these 24 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 1999 at the same ratio, 3.10: $1,000 becomes
$3,097, and $10,000 becomes $30,967.
Amount in 1975
Value in 1999
$1.00
$3.10
$5.00
$15.48
$10.00
$30.97
$20.00
$61.93
$50.00
$155
$100
$310
$500
$1,548
$1,000
$3,097
$5,000
$15,483
$10,000
$30,967
$100,000
$309,665
$1,000,000
$3,096,654
Inflation by spending category, 1975–1999
Between 1975 and 1999, medical care rose the most, up 427.6%, while apparel rose the least, up 81.1%, against 209.7% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1975
spending costs in 1999, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1975 →
All items (CPI-U)
4.82%
$310
Medical care
7.18%
$528
Core (all items less food & energy)
5.08%
$328
Housing
5.01%
$323
Transportation
4.51%
$288
Food
4.30%
$274
Energy
3.95%
$253
Apparel
2.51%
$181
Not shown because the BLS began these indexes after 1975: recreation (1993–), education & communication (1993–).
Decade by decade: 1975 to 1999
Prices climbed fastest in the 1970s, averaging 8.90% a year, and slowest in the 1990s (2.73% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1975–1999 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
1990–1999
2.73%
27.5%
$310
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1975
$100 from 1975 had already become $211 by
1987, on its way to $310 in 1999; 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 1999, prices rose 2.2% and $100 from 1975 had the buying
power of $310; the year's average CPI of 166.6 is the level
behind every 1999 figure on this page.
The median household earned about $40,700 in 1999, gas averaged $1.17 a gallon, and a new home
cost roughly $161,000. Inflation ran at 2.2% for the year, ticking back up from 1998’s decade low
as oil prices recovered from their collapse. The decade closed with two changes to the financial
system that would shape the one after it: on January 1, the euro launched as an accounting
currency across 11 European countries, trading alongside national currencies like the French
franc and German mark ahead of physical cash in 2002, and in November, Congress passed the
Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act, tearing down the Depression-era wall between commercial banks, investment
banks, and insurers. Stock markets, meanwhile, were absorbed in a boom of their own: the Nasdaq
surged through the year on soaring internet-stock valuations, and the Federal Reserve raised
interest rates three times in the second half of 1999 partly to cool the exuberance, even as it
pumped extra liquidity into the banking system to guard against any disruption from the Y2K
rollover. A first-class stamp cost 33 cents. Inflation had spent the decade falling from 1990’s
5.4% peak to averages closer to 2-3%, and 1999 closed it out almost exactly where the 1990s as a
whole had settled.
MLA: “Inflation from 1975 to 1999: $100 is worth $310 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1975-to-1999/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1975 to 1999. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1975-to-1999/