$100 in 1975 is worth $456 in 2017,
because prices increased 355.6% over that period, an average of
3.68% a year.
$100 in 1975 has
the same buying power as
$456
in 2017
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
355.6%
Average inflation rate
3.68% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$456
Price difference ($100 base)
$356
CPI in 1975
53.8
CPI in 2017
245.12
Inflation in 1975
9.13%
Inflation in 2017
2.13%
$100 in 1975 → 2017
$456
$100 in 2017 → 1975
$21.95
What happened to prices between 1975 and 2017
Between 1975 and 2017, the Consumer Price Index went from 53.8 to 245.12.
Cumulatively, prices increased 355.6%, which works out to an average of
3.68% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1975 bought what
$0.22 buys in 2017: the 1975 dollar
lost 78.1% of its purchasing power over
these 42 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 2017 at the same ratio, 4.56: $1,000 becomes
$4,556, and $10,000 becomes $45,561.
Amount in 1975
Value in 2017
$1.00
$4.56
$5.00
$22.78
$10.00
$45.56
$20.00
$91.12
$50.00
$228
$100
$456
$500
$2,278
$1,000
$4,556
$5,000
$22,781
$10,000
$45,561
$100,000
$455,613
$1,000,000
$4,556,134
Inflation by spending category, 1975–2017
Between 1975 and 2017, medical care rose the most, up 900.7%, while apparel rose the least, up 73.3%, against 355.6% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1975
spending costs in 2017, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1975 →
All items (CPI-U)
3.68%
$456
Medical care
5.64%
$1,001
Housing
3.88%
$496
Energy
3.84%
$486
Core (all items less food & energy)
3.74%
$468
Food
3.47%
$418
Transportation
3.37%
$402
Apparel
1.32%
$173
Not shown because the BLS began these indexes after 1975: recreation (1993–), education & communication (1993–).
Decade by decade: 1975 to 2017
Prices climbed fastest in the 1970s, averaging 8.90% a year, and slowest in the 2010s (1.69% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1975–2017 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
2010–2017
1.69%
12.4%
$456
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1975
$100 from 1975 had already become $283 by
1995, on its way to $456 in 2017; 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: 2017
In 2017, prices rose 2.1% and $100 from 1975 had the buying
power of $456; the year's average CPI of 245.12 is the level
behind every 2017 figure on this page.
2017 pushed consumer prices back above the Federal Reserve’s 2% target. The
CPI rose 2.1%, the first reading over 2% in five years, helped by a rebound
in energy after OPEC’s output cuts and by a storm-related spike at the pump:
Hurricane Harvey shut a large part of Gulf Coast refining in late August.
Gasoline averaged $2.42 a gallon, up from $2.14 in 2016.
Household incomes kept rising. The median household income reached $61,372,
and the median new home sold for about $322,100. The federal minimum wage
stayed at $7.25, its eighth year at that level, and a first-class stamp rose
to 49 cents.
The Fed raised rates three times, to 1.25–1.50%, and in October began
letting its bond holdings shrink. Congress passed the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act
in December, lowering the corporate rate to 21%. Even with unemployment near
4%, core inflation stayed under 2%, a puzzle that shaped Fed debates for the
next two years.
MLA: “Inflation from 1975 to 2017: $100 is worth $456 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1975-to-2017/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1975 to 2017. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1975-to-2017/