$100 in 1975 is worth $342 in 2003,
because prices increased 242.0% over that period, an average of
4.49% a year.
$100 in 1975 has
the same buying power as
$342
in 2003
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
242.0%
Average inflation rate
4.49% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$342
Price difference ($100 base)
$242
CPI in 1975
53.8
CPI in 2003
184
Inflation in 1975
9.13%
Inflation in 2003
2.28%
$100 in 1975 → 2003
$342
$100 in 2003 → 1975
$29.24
What happened to prices between 1975 and 2003
Between 1975 and 2003, the Consumer Price Index went from 53.8 to 184.
Cumulatively, prices increased 242.0%, which works out to an average of
4.49% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1975 bought what
$0.29 buys in 2003: the 1975 dollar
lost 70.8% of its purchasing power over
these 28 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 2003 at the same ratio, 3.42: $1,000 becomes
$3,420, and $10,000 becomes $34,201.
Amount in 1975
Value in 2003
$1.00
$3.42
$5.00
$17.10
$10.00
$34.20
$20.00
$68.40
$50.00
$171
$100
$342
$500
$1,710
$1,000
$3,420
$5,000
$17,100
$10,000
$34,201
$100,000
$342,007
$1,000,000
$3,420,074
Inflation by spending category, 1975–2003
Between 1975 and 2003, medical care rose the most, up 525.5%, while apparel rose the least, up 66.8%, against 242.0% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1975
spending costs in 2003, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1975 →
All items (CPI-U)
4.49%
$342
Medical care
6.77%
$625
Housing
4.73%
$364
Core (all items less food & energy)
4.66%
$358
Energy
4.29%
$324
Transportation
4.18%
$315
Food
4.01%
$301
Apparel
1.84%
$167
Not shown because the BLS began these indexes after 1975: recreation (1993–), education & communication (1993–).
Decade by decade: 1975 to 2003
Prices climbed fastest in the 1970s, averaging 8.90% a year, and slowest in the 2000s (2.23% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1975–2003 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
2000–2003
2.23%
6.9%
$342
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1975
$100 from 1975 had already become $230 by
1989, on its way to $342 in 2003; 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 2003, prices rose 2.3% and $100 from 1975 had the buying
power of $342; the year's average CPI of 184 is the level
behind every 2003 figure on this page.
Inflation was 2.3% in 2003, up from 1.6% in 2002, as gasoline climbed from $1.36 to $1.59 a
gallon around the March invasion of Iraq. Even so, the Federal Reserve spent the year worried
about prices being too low: on June 25 it cut its policy rate to 1.0%, the lowest since 1958,
and said the risk of deflation, though small, deserved a response. The median household earned
about $43,300 and a new home cost roughly $195,000. Congress passed a second round of tax cuts
in May, and the economy grew faster in the second half of the year than at any point since
1999. Hiring lagged the recovery, and unemployment peaked at 6.3% in June. A first-class stamp
stayed at 37 cents and the federal minimum wage at $5.15.
MLA: “Inflation from 1975 to 2003: $100 is worth $342 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1975-to-2003/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1975 to 2003. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1975-to-2003/