$100 in 1975 is worth $433 in 2013,
because prices increased 333.0% over that period, an average of
3.93% a year.
$100 in 1975 has
the same buying power as
$433
in 2013
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
333.0%
Average inflation rate
3.93% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$433
Price difference ($100 base)
$333
CPI in 1975
53.8
CPI in 2013
232.957
Inflation in 1975
9.13%
Inflation in 2013
1.46%
$100 in 1975 → 2013
$433
$100 in 2013 → 1975
$23.09
What happened to prices between 1975 and 2013
Between 1975 and 2013, the Consumer Price Index went from 53.8 to 232.957.
Cumulatively, prices increased 333.0%, which works out to an average of
3.93% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1975 bought what
$0.23 buys in 2013: the 1975 dollar
lost 76.9% of its purchasing power over
these 38 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 2013 at the same ratio, 4.33: $1,000 becomes
$4,330, and $10,000 becomes $43,301.
Amount in 1975
Value in 2013
$1.00
$4.33
$5.00
$21.65
$10.00
$43.30
$20.00
$86.60
$50.00
$217
$100
$433
$500
$2,165
$1,000
$4,330
$5,000
$21,650
$10,000
$43,301
$100,000
$433,006
$1,000,000
$4,330,056
Inflation by spending category, 1975–2013
Between 1975 and 2013, medical care rose the most, up 795.0%, while apparel rose the least, up 75.7%, against 333.0% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1975
spending costs in 2013, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1975 →
All items (CPI-U)
3.93%
$433
Medical care
5.94%
$895
Energy
4.74%
$581
Housing
4.03%
$448
Transportation
3.94%
$434
Core (all items less food & energy)
3.94%
$434
Food
3.69%
$396
Apparel
1.49%
$176
Not shown because the BLS began these indexes after 1975: recreation (1993–), education & communication (1993–).
Decade by decade: 1975 to 2013
Prices climbed fastest in the 1970s, averaging 8.90% a year, and slowest in the 2010s (2.23% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1975–2013 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
2010–2013
2.23%
6.8%
$433
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1975
$100 from 1975 had already become $269 by
1993, on its way to $433 in 2013; 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: 2013
In 2013, prices rose 1.5% and $100 from 1975 had the buying
power of $433; the year's average CPI of 232.957 is the level
behind every 2013 figure on this page.
2013 was a low-inflation year with a lot of noise around the Federal Reserve.
Consumer prices rose 1.5%, below the Fed’s 2% target, and gasoline eased to an
average of $3.51 a gallon. Housing was the exception: the median new home sold
for about $268,900, up sharply from $245,200 in 2012, as the market recovered
from its post-crisis bottom.
The Fed dominated the news. Chairman Ben Bernanke’s May comments about slowing
bond purchases pushed long-term interest rates up by roughly a percentage
point that summer, and mortgages became more expensive within weeks. In
December the Fed finally announced a first small cut to its purchases while
promising to keep short-term rates near zero for a long time.
Washington added its own disruption. A 16-day government shutdown in October
delayed data releases and left a hole in that month’s CPI collection. Median
household income was reported at $53,585, the federal minimum wage stayed at
$7.25, and a first-class stamp cost 46 cents. The decade’s pattern was taking
shape: slow price growth, ultra-low interest rates, and a labor market that
improved gradually.
MLA: “Inflation from 1975 to 2013: $100 is worth $433 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1975-to-2013/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1975 to 2013. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1975-to-2013/