$100 in 1975 is worth $440 in 2014,
because prices increased 340.0% over that period, an average of
3.87% a year.
$100 in 1975 has
the same buying power as
$440
in 2014
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
340.0%
Average inflation rate
3.87% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$440
Price difference ($100 base)
$340
CPI in 1975
53.8
CPI in 2014
236.736
Inflation in 1975
9.13%
Inflation in 2014
1.62%
$100 in 1975 → 2014
$440
$100 in 2014 → 1975
$22.73
What happened to prices between 1975 and 2014
Between 1975 and 2014, the Consumer Price Index went from 53.8 to 236.736.
Cumulatively, prices increased 340.0%, which works out to an average of
3.87% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1975 bought what
$0.23 buys in 2014: the 1975 dollar
lost 77.3% of its purchasing power over
these 39 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 2014 at the same ratio, 4.40: $1,000 becomes
$4,400, and $10,000 becomes $44,003.
Amount in 1975
Value in 2014
$1.00
$4.40
$5.00
$22.00
$10.00
$44.00
$20.00
$88.01
$50.00
$220
$100
$440
$500
$2,200
$1,000
$4,400
$5,000
$22,001
$10,000
$44,003
$100,000
$440,030
$1,000,000
$4,400,297
Inflation by spending category, 1975–2014
Between 1975 and 2014, medical care rose the most, up 816.4%, while apparel rose the least, up 75.9%, against 340.0% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1975
spending costs in 2014, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1975 →
All items (CPI-U)
3.87%
$440
Medical care
5.84%
$916
Energy
4.60%
$579
Housing
3.99%
$460
Core (all items less food & energy)
3.88%
$441
Transportation
3.82%
$431
Food
3.66%
$406
Apparel
1.46%
$176
Not shown because the BLS began these indexes after 1975: recreation (1993–), education & communication (1993–).
Decade by decade: 1975 to 2014
Prices climbed fastest in the 1970s, averaging 8.90% a year, and slowest in the 2010s (2.08% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1975–2014 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
2010–2014
2.08%
8.6%
$440
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1975
$100 from 1975 had already become $283 by
1995, on its way to $440 in 2014; 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: 2014
In 2014, prices rose 1.6% and $100 from 1975 had the buying
power of $440; the year's average CPI of 236.736 is the level
behind every 2014 figure on this page.
2014 ended with the sharpest oil price drop in years. Consumer prices rose
1.6% for the year, close to 2013’s pace, but the annual figure hid a shift at
the pump: crude oil fell from above $100 a barrel in June to below $60 in
December, and gasoline finished the year near $2.25 a gallon after averaging
$3.37 across 2014. The drop reflected record U.S. shale output, softer
global demand, and OPEC’s decision in November to keep producing.
For households, cheaper fuel arrived just as the labor market strengthened.
Median household income was $53,657, essentially flat on the prior year, and
the median new home sold for about $288,500. The federal minimum wage stayed
at $7.25 for a fifth year, and a first-class stamp rose to 49 cents.
The Federal Reserve ended its bond purchases in October but left its policy
rate at zero. A stronger dollar helped hold down import prices. Because
energy weighs heavily in the CPI, the late-year slide carried into 2015, which
posted the smallest annual increase of the decade.
MLA: “Inflation from 1975 to 2014: $100 is worth $440 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1975-to-2014/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1975 to 2014. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1975-to-2014/