$100 in 1975 is worth $334 in 2002,
because prices increased 234.4% over that period, an average of
4.57% a year.
$100 in 1975 has
the same buying power as
$334
in 2002
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
234.4%
Average inflation rate
4.57% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$334
Price difference ($100 base)
$234
CPI in 1975
53.8
CPI in 2002
179.9
Inflation in 1975
9.13%
Inflation in 2002
1.58%
$100 in 1975 → 2002
$334
$100 in 2002 → 1975
$29.91
What happened to prices between 1975 and 2002
Between 1975 and 2002, the Consumer Price Index went from 53.8 to 179.9.
Cumulatively, prices increased 234.4%, which works out to an average of
4.57% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1975 bought what
$0.30 buys in 2002: the 1975 dollar
lost 70.1% of its purchasing power over
these 27 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 2002 at the same ratio, 3.34: $1,000 becomes
$3,344, and $10,000 becomes $33,439.
Amount in 1975
Value in 2002
$1.00
$3.34
$5.00
$16.72
$10.00
$33.44
$20.00
$66.88
$50.00
$167
$100
$334
$500
$1,672
$1,000
$3,344
$5,000
$16,719
$10,000
$33,439
$100,000
$334,387
$1,000,000
$3,343,866
Inflation by spending category, 1975–2002
Between 1975 and 2002, medical care rose the most, up 501.3%, while apparel rose the least, up 71.0%, against 234.4% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1975
spending costs in 2002, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1975 →
All items (CPI-U)
4.57%
$334
Medical care
6.87%
$601
Housing
4.81%
$356
Core (all items less food & energy)
4.79%
$353
Transportation
4.22%
$305
Food
4.08%
$295
Energy
4.01%
$289
Apparel
2.01%
$171
Not shown because the BLS began these indexes after 1975: recreation (1993–), education & communication (1993–).
Decade by decade: 1975 to 2002
Prices climbed fastest in the 1970s, averaging 8.90% a year, and slowest in the 2000s (2.21% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1975–2002 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
2000–2002
2.21%
4.5%
$334
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1975
$100 from 1975 had already become $220 by
1988, on its way to $334 in 2002; 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 2002, prices rose 1.6% and $100 from 1975 had the buying
power of $334; the year's average CPI of 179.9 is the level
behind every 2002 figure on this page.
The CPI rose 1.6% in 2002, the lowest annual rate of the decade so far, with gasoline down to an
average of $1.36 a gallon and slack in the labor market keeping wage pressure low. The median
household earned about $42,400, and a new home cost roughly $187,600, an increase of about 7%
from the year before as low mortgage rates began to lift housing. The Federal Reserve cut its
policy rate to 1.25% in November. Stocks were moving the other way: after the Enron and WorldCom
scandals, the S&P 500 hit its bear-market low on October 9, about 49% below its March 2000
peak, and Congress passed the Sarbanes-Oxley Act in July to tighten corporate accounting rules.
On January 1, euro banknotes and coins replaced national currencies in 12 European countries. A
first-class stamp rose to 37 cents in June, and the federal minimum wage stayed at $5.15.
MLA: “Inflation from 1975 to 2002: $100 is worth $334 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1975-to-2002/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1975 to 2002. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1975-to-2002/