$100 in 1975 is worth $375 in 2006,
because prices increased 274.7% over that period, an average of
4.35% a year.
$100 in 1975 has
the same buying power as
$375
in 2006
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
274.7%
Average inflation rate
4.35% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$375
Price difference ($100 base)
$275
CPI in 1975
53.8
CPI in 2006
201.6
Inflation in 1975
9.13%
Inflation in 2006
3.23%
$100 in 1975 → 2006
$375
$100 in 2006 → 1975
$26.69
What happened to prices between 1975 and 2006
Between 1975 and 2006, the Consumer Price Index went from 53.8 to 201.6.
Cumulatively, prices increased 274.7%, which works out to an average of
4.35% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1975 bought what
$0.27 buys in 2006: the 1975 dollar
lost 73.3% of its purchasing power over
these 31 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 2006 at the same ratio, 3.75: $1,000 becomes
$3,747, and $10,000 becomes $37,472.
Amount in 1975
Value in 2006
$1.00
$3.75
$5.00
$18.74
$10.00
$37.47
$20.00
$74.94
$50.00
$187
$100
$375
$500
$1,874
$1,000
$3,747
$5,000
$18,736
$10,000
$37,472
$100,000
$374,721
$1,000,000
$3,747,212
Inflation by spending category, 1975–2006
Between 1975 and 2006, medical care rose the most, up 607.8%, while apparel rose the least, up 64.8%, against 274.7% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1975
spending costs in 2006, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1975 →
All items (CPI-U)
4.35%
$375
Medical care
6.52%
$708
Energy
5.10%
$468
Housing
4.58%
$401
Core (all items less food & energy)
4.42%
$382
Transportation
4.23%
$361
Food
3.89%
$326
Apparel
1.63%
$165
Not shown because the BLS began these indexes after 1975: recreation (1993–), education & communication (1993–).
Decade by decade: 1975 to 2006
Prices climbed fastest in the 1970s, averaging 8.90% a year, and slowest in the 2000s (2.66% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1975–2006 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
2000–2006
2.66%
17.1%
$375
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1975
$100 from 1975 had already become $253 by
1991, on its way to $375 in 2006; 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.
Long periods are sampled every 2 years; the calculator above covers any pair of years.
The destination year: 2006
In 2006, prices rose 3.2% and $100 from 1975 had the buying
power of $375; the year's average CPI of 201.6 is the level
behind every 2006 figure on this page.
Inflation was 3.2% in 2006 and gasoline averaged $2.59 a gallon, up 29 cents from 2005. The
median household earned about $48,200 and the median new home cost $246,500, a gain of about
2% after a 13% jump in 2004 and 9% in 2005. National home prices, by the S&P/Case-Shiller
index, peaked in mid-2006. Ben Bernanke replaced Alan Greenspan as Federal Reserve chair on
February 1, and on June 29 the Fed raised its policy rate to 5.25%, the last of 17 straight
quarter-point increases. It held there for over a year. A first-class stamp rose to 39 cents in
January, and the federal minimum wage was $5.15 for the ninth full year in a row.
MLA: “Inflation from 1975 to 2006: $100 is worth $375 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1975-to-2006/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1975 to 2006. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1975-to-2006/