$100 in 1975 is worth $320 in 2000,
because prices increased 220.1% over that period, an average of
4.76% a year.
$100 in 1975 has
the same buying power as
$320
in 2000
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
220.1%
Average inflation rate
4.76% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$320
Price difference ($100 base)
$220
CPI in 1975
53.8
CPI in 2000
172.2
Inflation in 1975
9.13%
Inflation in 2000
3.36%
$100 in 1975 → 2000
$320
$100 in 2000 → 1975
$31.24
What happened to prices between 1975 and 2000
Between 1975 and 2000, the Consumer Price Index went from 53.8 to 172.2.
Cumulatively, prices increased 220.1%, which works out to an average of
4.76% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1975 bought what
$0.31 buys in 2000: the 1975 dollar
lost 68.8% of its purchasing power over
these 25 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 2000 at the same ratio, 3.20: $1,000 becomes
$3,201, and $10,000 becomes $32,007.
Amount in 1975
Value in 2000
$1.00
$3.20
$5.00
$16.00
$10.00
$32.01
$20.00
$64.01
$50.00
$160
$100
$320
$500
$1,600
$1,000
$3,201
$5,000
$16,004
$10,000
$32,007
$100,000
$320,074
$1,000,000
$3,200,743
Inflation by spending category, 1975–2000
Between 1975 and 2000, medical care rose the most, up 449.1%, while apparel rose the least, up 78.8%, against 220.1% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1975
spending costs in 2000, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1975 →
All items (CPI-U)
4.76%
$320
Medical care
7.05%
$549
Core (all items less food & energy)
4.97%
$336
Housing
4.95%
$335
Transportation
4.58%
$306
Energy
4.44%
$296
Food
4.21%
$281
Apparel
2.35%
$179
Not shown because the BLS began these indexes after 1975: recreation (1993–), education & communication (1993–).
Decade by decade: 1975 to 2000
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 1975–2000 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
1990–2000
2.80%
31.8%
$320
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1975
$100 from 1975 had already become $211 by
1987, on its way to $320 in 2000; 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 2000, prices rose 3.4% and $100 from 1975 had the buying
power of $320; the year's average CPI of 172.2 is the level
behind every 2000 figure on this page.
Inflation ran at 3.4% in 2000, the highest annual rate since 1991, as an economy growing
above 4% and a rise in oil prices pushed the CPI up. The median household earned about
$42,100, gas averaged $1.51 a gallon, and a new home cost roughly $169,000. The Federal
Reserve had raised interest rates six times since mid-1999 and stopped at 6.5% in May. By
then the stock market had already turned: the Nasdaq hit its record of 5,048 on March 10 and
lost about 39% of its value by December. Consumer prices did not reflect the slowdown yet,
which is why the Fed held rates high through the year even as technology companies began to
fail. In October, Congress granted China permanent normal trade relations, a decision that
would help hold down the price of manufactured goods for years. A first-class stamp cost 33
cents and the federal minimum wage was $5.15. The recession of 2001 brought inflation back
down.
MLA: “Inflation from 1975 to 2000: $100 is worth $320 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1975-to-2000/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1975 to 2000. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1975-to-2000/