$100 in 1975 is worth $446 in 2016,
because prices increased 346.1% over that period, an average of
3.71% a year.
$100 in 1975 has
the same buying power as
$446
in 2016
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
346.1%
Average inflation rate
3.71% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$446
Price difference ($100 base)
$346
CPI in 1975
53.8
CPI in 2016
240.007
Inflation in 1975
9.13%
Inflation in 2016
1.26%
$100 in 1975 → 2016
$446
$100 in 2016 → 1975
$22.42
What happened to prices between 1975 and 2016
Between 1975 and 2016, the Consumer Price Index went from 53.8 to 240.007.
Cumulatively, prices increased 346.1%, which works out to an average of
3.71% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1975 bought what
$0.22 buys in 2016: the 1975 dollar
lost 77.6% of its purchasing power over
these 41 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 2016 at the same ratio, 4.46: $1,000 becomes
$4,461, and $10,000 becomes $44,611.
Amount in 1975
Value in 2016
$1.00
$4.46
$5.00
$22.31
$10.00
$44.61
$20.00
$89.22
$50.00
$223
$100
$446
$500
$2,231
$1,000
$4,461
$5,000
$22,305
$10,000
$44,611
$100,000
$446,110
$1,000,000
$4,461,097
Inflation by spending category, 1975–2016
Between 1975 and 2016, medical care rose the most, up 876.2%, while apparel rose the least, up 73.9%, against 346.1% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1975
spending costs in 2016, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1975 →
All items (CPI-U)
3.71%
$446
Medical care
5.71%
$976
Housing
3.91%
$481
Core (all items less food & energy)
3.79%
$459
Energy
3.74%
$450
Food
3.53%
$415
Transportation
3.37%
$389
Apparel
1.36%
$174
Not shown because the BLS began these indexes after 1975: recreation (1993–), education & communication (1993–).
Decade by decade: 1975 to 2016
Prices climbed fastest in the 1970s, averaging 8.90% a year, and slowest in the 2010s (1.61% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1975–2016 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
2010–2016
1.61%
10.1%
$446
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1975
$100 from 1975 had already become $283 by
1995, on its way to $446 in 2016; 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: 2016
In 2016, prices rose 1.3% and $100 from 1975 had the buying
power of $446; the year's average CPI of 240.007 is the level
behind every 2016 figure on this page.
2016 opened with the cheapest oil in more than a decade and closed with a
change in political direction. Crude fell to about $26 a barrel in February,
and gasoline averaged $2.14 a gallon for the year, its lowest annual
average since 2004. Headline inflation was 1.3%, a modest rebound from 2015’s
0.1%, though prices excluding food and energy rose faster, driven by rents and
health care.
Median household income rose to $59,039, the second large gain in a row, and
the median new home sold for about $307,800. The federal minimum wage held at
$7.25, and a first-class stamp fell to 47 cents after a January rate cut, a
rare decrease.
Two votes changed the outlook. Britain’s June decision to leave the European
Union unsettled currency markets, and the U.S. election in November raised
expectations of tax cuts, deficits, and faster growth, sending long-term
interest rates higher. OPEC’s November output cut ended the oil slump, and the
Federal Reserve made its second rate increase in December, to 0.50–0.75%.
MLA: “Inflation from 1975 to 2016: $100 is worth $446 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1975-to-2016/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1975 to 2016. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1975-to-2016/