$100 in 1975 is worth $405 in 2010,
because prices increased 305.3% over that period, an average of
4.08% a year.
$100 in 1975 has
the same buying power as
$405
in 2010
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
305.3%
Average inflation rate
4.08% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$405
Price difference ($100 base)
$305
CPI in 1975
53.8
CPI in 2010
218.056
Inflation in 1975
9.13%
Inflation in 2010
1.64%
$100 in 1975 → 2010
$405
$100 in 2010 → 1975
$24.67
What happened to prices between 1975 and 2010
Between 1975 and 2010, the Consumer Price Index went from 53.8 to 218.056.
Cumulatively, prices increased 305.3%, which works out to an average of
4.08% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1975 bought what
$0.25 buys in 2010: the 1975 dollar
lost 75.3% of its purchasing power over
these 35 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 2010 at the same ratio, 4.05: $1,000 becomes
$4,053, and $10,000 becomes $40,531.
Amount in 1975
Value in 2010
$1.00
$4.05
$5.00
$20.27
$10.00
$40.53
$20.00
$81.06
$50.00
$203
$100
$405
$500
$2,027
$1,000
$4,053
$5,000
$20,265
$10,000
$40,531
$100,000
$405,309
$1,000,000
$4,053,086
Inflation by spending category, 1975–2010
Between 1975 and 2010, medical care rose the most, up 717.8%, while apparel rose the least, up 64.8%, against 305.3% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1975
spending costs in 2010, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1975 →
All items (CPI-U)
4.08%
$405
Medical care
6.19%
$818
Energy
4.72%
$502
Housing
4.23%
$427
Core (all items less food & energy)
4.12%
$411
Transportation
3.93%
$386
Food
3.79%
$367
Apparel
1.44%
$165
Not shown because the BLS began these indexes after 1975: recreation (1993–), education & communication (1993–).
Decade by decade: 1975 to 2010
Prices climbed fastest in the 1970s, averaging 8.90% a year, and slowest in the 2000s (2.39% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1975–2010 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
2000–2010
2.39%
26.6%
$405
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1975
$100 from 1975 had already become $269 by
1993, on its way to $405 in 2010; 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 prices fell 0.4% in 2009, the deepest deflation of the period.
Long periods are sampled every 2 years; the calculator above covers any pair of years.
The destination year: 2010
In 2010, prices rose 1.6% and $100 from 1975 had the buying
power of $405; the year's average CPI of 218.056 is the level
behind every 2010 figure on this page.
2010 was a year of recovery without much price pressure. The CPI rose 1.6%, a
return to growth after 2009’s deflation, with gasoline averaging $2.78 a
gallon as energy prices climbed back from their recession lows. Housing costs
barely moved: millions of foreclosed and vacant homes kept rents soft, and the
median new home sold for about $221,800. The federal minimum wage stayed at
$7.25, the level set in July 2009, and a first-class stamp cost 44 cents.
The Federal Reserve was more worried about too little inflation than too
much. Its policy rate sat at 0–0.25%, and in November it announced a further
$600 billion of Treasury purchases to hold down long-term borrowing costs.
Congress passed the Dodd-Frank Act in July to tighten financial regulation,
while a 110 billion euro rescue of Greece in May showed that the crisis had
moved from American mortgages to European government debt. For anyone
comparing dollars across the decade, 2010 is a useful baseline: prices were
still close to their 2008 levels, and the years ahead brought a slow, steady
climb.
MLA: “Inflation from 1975 to 2010: $100 is worth $405 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1975-to-2010/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1975 to 2010. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1975-to-2010/