$100 in 1975 is worth $441 in 2015,
because prices increased 340.6% over that period, an average of
3.78% a year.
$100 in 1975 has
the same buying power as
$441
in 2015
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
340.6%
Average inflation rate
3.78% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$441
Price difference ($100 base)
$341
CPI in 1975
53.8
CPI in 2015
237.017
Inflation in 1975
9.13%
Inflation in 2015
0.12%
$100 in 1975 → 2015
$441
$100 in 2015 → 1975
$22.70
What happened to prices between 1975 and 2015
Between 1975 and 2015, the Consumer Price Index went from 53.8 to 237.017.
Cumulatively, prices increased 340.6%, which works out to an average of
3.78% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1975 bought what
$0.23 buys in 2015: the 1975 dollar
lost 77.3% of its purchasing power over
these 40 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 2015 at the same ratio, 4.41: $1,000 becomes
$4,406, and $10,000 becomes $44,055.
Amount in 1975
Value in 2015
$1.00
$4.41
$5.00
$22.03
$10.00
$44.06
$20.00
$88.11
$50.00
$220
$100
$441
$500
$2,203
$1,000
$4,406
$5,000
$22,028
$10,000
$44,055
$100,000
$440,552
$1,000,000
$4,405,520
Inflation by spending category, 1975–2015
Between 1975 and 2015, medical care rose the most, up 840.5%, while apparel rose the least, up 73.7%, against 340.6% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1975
spending costs in 2015, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1975 →
All items (CPI-U)
3.78%
$441
Medical care
5.76%
$941
Energy
4.01%
$482
Housing
3.94%
$470
Core (all items less food & energy)
3.83%
$449
Food
3.61%
$413
Transportation
3.51%
$397
Apparel
1.39%
$174
Not shown because the BLS began these indexes after 1975: recreation (1993–), education & communication (1993–).
Decade by decade: 1975 to 2015
Prices climbed fastest in the 1970s, averaging 8.90% a year, and slowest in the 2010s (1.68% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1975–2015 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
2010–2015
1.68%
8.7%
$441
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1975
$100 from 1975 had already become $283 by
1995, on its way to $441 in 2015; 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: 2015
In 2015, prices rose 0.1% and $100 from 1975 had the buying
power of $441; the year's average CPI of 237.017 is the level
behind every 2015 figure on this page.
2015 was almost a year with no inflation at all. Consumer prices rose 0.1%,
the smallest increase since the 2009 decline, because energy prices kept
falling. Gasoline averaged $2.45 a gallon, down from $3.37 in 2014, and a
strong dollar made imported goods cheaper. The picture was different outside
food and energy: core prices rose about 1.8% as rents and medical costs
climbed.
Incomes finally showed real progress. Median household income reached $56,516,
a large jump from $53,657, and the median new home sold for about $296,400. The
federal minimum wage stayed at $7.25, and a first-class stamp stayed at 49
cents.
The Federal Reserve chose December to end its zero-rate policy, raising the
target range to 0.25–0.50% for the first time since 2006. It moved even
though headline inflation was far under 2%, arguing that the drag from
energy was temporary. Earlier, a currency shift in China in August had shaken
global markets and pushed oil below $40 a barrel. Prices in 2015 ended
the year barely above their 2014 level.
MLA: “Inflation from 1975 to 2015: $100 is worth $441 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1975-to-2015/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1975 to 2015. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1975-to-2015/