$100 in 1975 is worth $598 in 2025,
because prices increased 498.4% over that period, an average of
3.64% a year.
$100 in 1975 has
the same buying power as
$598
in 2025
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
498.4%
Average inflation rate
3.64% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$598
Price difference ($100 base)
$498
CPI in 1975
53.8
CPI in 2025
321.943
Inflation in 1975
9.13%
Inflation in 2025
2.63%
$100 in 1975 → 2025
$598
$100 in 2025 → 1975
$16.71
What happened to prices between 1975 and 2025
Between 1975 and 2025, the Consumer Price Index went from 53.8 to 321.943.
Cumulatively, prices increased 498.4%, which works out to an average of
3.64% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1975 bought what
$0.17 buys in 2025: the 1975 dollar
lost 83.3% of its purchasing power over
these 50 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 2025 at the same ratio, 5.98: $1,000 becomes
$5,984, and $10,000 becomes $59,841.
Amount in 1975
Value in 2025
$1.00
$5.98
$5.00
$29.92
$10.00
$59.84
$20.00
$120
$50.00
$299
$100
$598
$500
$2,992
$1,000
$5,984
$5,000
$29,920
$10,000
$59,841
$100,000
$598,407
$1,000,000
$5,984,071
Inflation by spending category, 1975–2025
Between 1975 and 2025, medical care rose the most, up 1121.3%, while apparel rose the least, up 81.1%, against 498.4% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1975
spending costs in 2025, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1975 →
All items (CPI-U)
3.64%
$598
Medical care
5.13%
$1,221
Housing
3.92%
$684
Energy
3.86%
$664
Core (all items less food & energy)
3.68%
$609
Food
3.53%
$568
Transportation
3.44%
$543
Apparel
1.20%
$181
Not shown because the BLS began these indexes after 1975: recreation (1993–), education & communication (1993–).
Decade by decade: 1975 to 2025
Prices climbed fastest in the 1970s, averaging 8.90% a year, and slowest in the 2010s (1.73% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1975–2025 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
2010–2020
1.73%
18.7%
$481
2020–2025
4.46%
24.4%
$598
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1975
$100 from 1975 had already become $310 by
1999, on its way to $598 in 2025; 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: 2025
In 2025, prices rose 2.6% and $100 from 1975 had the buying
power of $598; the year's average CPI of 321.943 is the level
behind every 2025 figure on this page.
2025 was a year of trade policy and data disruptions rather than an
inflation surge. Consumer prices rose 2.6% on average, a step down from
2024’s 2.9% and well below the 8.0% of 2022. Tariffs announced in April
pushed up prices for some imported goods, including furniture, apparel, and
auto parts, but the effect on the overall index was smaller than many
forecasters feared at the start of the year, in part because retailers
absorbed some of the cost and demand for services stayed steady.
The Federal Reserve held its policy rate steady through the first half of the
year, then began cutting again in September, lowering it in three quarter-point
steps to 3.50–3.75% by December.
The federal government shutdown that began October 1 lasted 43 days, and the
Bureau of Labor Statistics did not publish a CPI for October 2025 because the
survey data could not be collected. The federal minimum wage stayed at $7.25,
and a first-class stamp rose to 78 cents in July.
MLA: “Inflation from 1975 to 2025: $100 is worth $598 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1975-to-2025/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1975 to 2025. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1975-to-2025/