$100 in 1975 is worth $363 in 2005,
because prices increased 263.0% over that period, an average of
4.39% a year.
$100 in 1975 has
the same buying power as
$363
in 2005
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
263.0%
Average inflation rate
4.39% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$363
Price difference ($100 base)
$263
CPI in 1975
53.8
CPI in 2005
195.3
Inflation in 1975
9.13%
Inflation in 2005
3.39%
$100 in 1975 → 2005
$363
$100 in 2005 → 1975
$27.55
What happened to prices between 1975 and 2005
Between 1975 and 2005, the Consumer Price Index went from 53.8 to 195.3.
Cumulatively, prices increased 263.0%, which works out to an average of
4.39% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1975 bought what
$0.28 buys in 2005: the 1975 dollar
lost 72.5% of its purchasing power over
these 30 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 2005 at the same ratio, 3.63: $1,000 becomes
$3,630, and $10,000 becomes $36,301.
Amount in 1975
Value in 2005
$1.00
$3.63
$5.00
$18.15
$10.00
$36.30
$20.00
$72.60
$50.00
$182
$100
$363
$500
$1,815
$1,000
$3,630
$5,000
$18,151
$10,000
$36,301
$100,000
$363,011
$1,000,000
$3,630,112
Inflation by spending category, 1975–2005
Between 1975 and 2005, medical care rose the most, up 580.4%, while apparel rose the least, up 64.8%, against 263.0% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1975
spending costs in 2005, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1975 →
All items (CPI-U)
4.39%
$363
Medical care
6.60%
$680
Energy
4.91%
$421
Housing
4.61%
$386
Core (all items less food & energy)
4.48%
$373
Transportation
4.24%
$347
Food
3.94%
$319
Apparel
1.68%
$165
Not shown because the BLS began these indexes after 1975: recreation (1993–), education & communication (1993–).
Decade by decade: 1975 to 2005
Prices climbed fastest in the 1970s, averaging 8.90% a year, and slowest in the 2000s (2.55% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1975–2005 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
2000–2005
2.55%
13.4%
$363
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1975
$100 from 1975 had already become $243 by
1990, on its way to $363 in 2005; 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 2005, prices rose 3.4% and $100 from 1975 had the buying
power of $363; the year's average CPI of 195.3 is the level
behind every 2005 figure on this page.
Inflation rose to 3.4% in 2005, up from 2.7% in 2004, as gasoline averaged $2.30 a gallon,
compared with $1.88 the year before. Hurricane Katrina made landfall on August 29, and with
Hurricane Rita weeks later it disrupted Gulf Coast refining, pushing the national average
price past $3 in early September. The Federal Reserve raised its policy rate at every meeting,
from 2.25% to 4.25%, to keep energy costs from feeding into other prices. The median household
earned about $46,300, up 4.5% from 2004, but the median new home price rose a further 9%, to
$240,900. In April, Congress passed a bankruptcy law that made it harder to clear debts. A
first-class stamp stayed at 37 cents until January 2006, and the federal minimum wage stayed
at $5.15.
MLA: “Inflation from 1975 to 2005: $100 is worth $363 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1975-to-2005/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1975 to 2005. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1975-to-2005/