$100 in 1976 is worth $332 in 2004,
because prices increased 232.0% over that period, an average of
4.38% a year.
$100 in 1976 has
the same buying power as
$332
in 2004
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
232.0%
Average inflation rate
4.38% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$332
Price difference ($100 base)
$232
CPI in 1976
56.9
CPI in 2004
188.9
Inflation in 1976
5.76%
Inflation in 2004
2.66%
$100 in 1976 → 2004
$332
$100 in 2004 → 1976
$30.12
What happened to prices between 1976 and 2004
Between 1976 and 2004, the Consumer Price Index went from 56.9 to 188.9.
Cumulatively, prices increased 232.0%, which works out to an average of
4.38% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1976 bought what
$0.30 buys in 2004: the 1976 dollar
lost 69.9% of its purchasing power over
these 28 years.
Consumer prices rose 5.8% in 1976, the calmest pace since 1972,
as the economy pulled out of the 1973-75 recession and price growth settled
to roughly half its 1974 peak. The recovery gave Americans
room to celebrate: tall ships filled New York Harbor and fireworks lit cities
nationwide on July 4 for the country’s bicentennial, a rare moment of shared
celebration after Vietnam and Watergate. Politically, Jimmy Carter, a former
Georgia governor running as a Washington outsider, defeated incumbent Gerald
Ford that November, campaigning on restoring trust in government and bringing
down inflation and unemployment together. In a California garage, Steve
Jobs, Steve Wozniak, and Ronald Wayne founded Apple Computer that April to
sell the Apple I, a bare circuit board aimed at electronics hobbyists, a
business that looked far from consequential at the time. First-class
postage, which had risen to 13 cents that past December 31, held there
through the year, the longest stretch without a rate change since the Postal
Service’s creation. A median household earned $12,686 in 1976, a new home
sold for a median $44,200, and gas averaged 59 cents a gallon. Consumer
prices stood 474.7% above their 1913 level, a calm interlude
before inflation turned back up.
Every 1976 amount converts to 2004 at the same ratio, 3.32: $1,000 becomes
$3,320, and $10,000 becomes $33,199.
Amount in 1976
Value in 2004
$1.00
$3.32
$5.00
$16.60
$10.00
$33.20
$20.00
$66.40
$50.00
$166
$100
$332
$500
$1,660
$1,000
$3,320
$5,000
$16,599
$10,000
$33,199
$100,000
$331,986
$1,000,000
$3,319,859
Inflation by spending category, 1976–2004
Between 1976 and 2004, medical care rose the most, up 496.3%, while apparel rose the least, up 60.1%, against 232.0% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1976
spending costs in 2004, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1976 →
All items (CPI-U)
4.38%
$332
Medical care
6.59%
$596
Housing
4.60%
$352
Core (all items less food & energy)
4.49%
$343
Energy
4.42%
$336
Food
4.03%
$302
Transportation
3.95%
$296
Apparel
1.70%
$160
Not shown because the BLS began these indexes after 1976: recreation (1993–), education & communication (1993–).
Decade by decade: 1976 to 2004
Prices climbed fastest in the 1970s, averaging 9.70% a year, and slowest in the 2000s (2.34% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1976–2004 change:
Years
Avg. yearly inflation
Price change
$100 from 1976, at end
1976–1980
9.70%
44.8%
$145
1980–1990
4.72%
58.6%
$230
1990–2000
2.80%
31.8%
$303
2000–2004
2.34%
9.7%
$332
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1976
$100 from 1976 had already become $230 by
1990, on its way to $332 in 2004; 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 the smallest rise was 1.6% in 1998.
In 2004, prices rose 2.7% and $100 from 1976 had the buying
power of $332; the year's average CPI of 188.9 is the level
behind every 2004 figure on this page.
Consumer prices rose 2.7% in 2004, with a 29-cent jump in the price of gasoline, to $1.88 a
gallon, doing much of the work. Crude oil passed $50 a barrel in October on rising demand
from China and India. The Federal Reserve raised rates for the first time in four years on
June 30, to 1.25%, and it kept going: 17 consecutive quarter-point increases took the rate to
5.25% by June 2006. Housing was already running ahead of incomes. The median household earned
about $44,300, up 2.3% from 2003, while the median new home sold for $221,000, up about 13%. A
first-class stamp stayed at 37 cents and the federal minimum wage at $5.15, unchanged since
1997.
MLA: “Inflation from 1976 to 2004: $100 is worth $332 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1976-to-2004/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1976 to 2004. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1976-to-2004/