$100 in 1975 is worth $400 in 2008,
because prices increased 300.2% over that period, an average of
4.29% a year.
$100 in 1975 has
the same buying power as
$400
in 2008
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
300.2%
Average inflation rate
4.29% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$400
Price difference ($100 base)
$300
CPI in 1975
53.8
CPI in 2008
215.303
Inflation in 1975
9.13%
Inflation in 2008
3.84%
$100 in 1975 → 2008
$400
$100 in 2008 → 1975
$24.99
What happened to prices between 1975 and 2008
Between 1975 and 2008, the Consumer Price Index went from 53.8 to 215.303.
Cumulatively, prices increased 300.2%, which works out to an average of
4.29% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1975 bought what
$0.25 buys in 2008: the 1975 dollar
lost 75.0% of its purchasing power over
these 33 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 2008 at the same ratio, 4.00: $1,000 becomes
$4,002, and $10,000 becomes $40,019.
Amount in 1975
Value in 2008
$1.00
$4.00
$5.00
$20.01
$10.00
$40.02
$20.00
$80.04
$50.00
$200
$100
$400
$500
$2,001
$1,000
$4,002
$5,000
$20,010
$10,000
$40,019
$100,000
$400,191
$1,000,000
$4,001,914
Inflation by spending category, 1975–2008
Between 1975 and 2008, medical care rose the most, up 666.5%, while apparel rose the least, up 64.0%, against 300.2% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1975
spending costs in 2008, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1975 →
All items (CPI-U)
4.29%
$400
Medical care
6.37%
$766
Energy
5.37%
$562
Housing
4.49%
$427
Core (all items less food & energy)
4.29%
$400
Transportation
4.21%
$390
Food
3.94%
$358
Apparel
1.51%
$164
Not shown because the BLS began these indexes after 1975: recreation (1993–), education & communication (1993–).
Decade by decade: 1975 to 2008
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 1975–2008 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
2000–2008
2.83%
25.0%
$400
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1975
$100 from 1975 had already become $253 by
1991, on its way to $400 in 2008; 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: 2008
In 2008, prices rose 3.8% and $100 from 1975 had the buying
power of $400; the year's average CPI of 215.303 is the level
behind every 2008 figure on this page.
Inflation averaged 3.8% in 2008, but that figure hides a swing. The 12-month rate reached 5.6% in
July, when oil hit $147 a barrel and gasoline passed $4 a gallon, then fell to 0.1% by December
as crude dropped near $40. For the year, gas averaged $3.27, the highest yet. The financial
system broke in the fall: Lehman Brothers filed for bankruptcy on September 15, Congress
created the $700 billion TARP bank rescue on October 3, and the Federal Reserve cut its policy
rate to a range of 0–0.25% in December. The median household earned about $50,300, barely
above 2007, and the median new home price fell to $232,100. The minimum wage rose to $6.55 in
July, and a first-class stamp cost 42 cents. The price collapse at the end of 2008 set up the
deflation of 2009.
MLA: “Inflation from 1975 to 2008: $100 is worth $400 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1975-to-2008/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1975 to 2008. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1975-to-2008/