$100 in 1976 is worth $395 in 2011,
because prices increased 295.3% over that period, an average of
4.01% a year.
$100 in 1976 has
the same buying power as
$395
in 2011
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
295.3%
Average inflation rate
4.01% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$395
Price difference ($100 base)
$295
CPI in 1976
56.9
CPI in 2011
224.939
Inflation in 1976
5.76%
Inflation in 2011
3.16%
$100 in 1976 → 2011
$395
$100 in 2011 → 1976
$25.30
What happened to prices between 1976 and 2011
Between 1976 and 2011, the Consumer Price Index went from 56.9 to 224.939.
Cumulatively, prices increased 295.3%, which works out to an average of
4.01% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1976 bought what
$0.25 buys in 2011: the 1976 dollar
lost 74.7% of its purchasing power over
these 35 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 2011 at the same ratio, 3.95: $1,000 becomes
$3,953, and $10,000 becomes $39,532.
Amount in 1976
Value in 2011
$1.00
$3.95
$5.00
$19.77
$10.00
$39.53
$20.00
$79.06
$50.00
$198
$100
$395
$500
$1,977
$1,000
$3,953
$5,000
$19,766
$10,000
$39,532
$100,000
$395,323
$1,000,000
$3,953,234
Inflation by spending category, 1976–2011
Between 1976 and 2011, medical care rose the most, up 669.7%, while apparel rose the least, up 62.4%, against 295.3% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1976
spending costs in 2011, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1976 →
All items (CPI-U)
4.01%
$395
Medical care
6.00%
$770
Energy
4.94%
$541
Housing
4.09%
$407
Core (all items less food & energy)
3.98%
$392
Transportation
3.93%
$385
Food
3.81%
$370
Apparel
1.39%
$162
Not shown because the BLS began these indexes after 1976: recreation (1993–), education & communication (1993–).
Decade by decade: 1976 to 2011
Prices climbed fastest in the 1970s, averaging 9.70% a year, and slowest in the 2000s (2.39% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1976–2011 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
2000–2010
2.39%
26.6%
$383
2010–2011
3.16%
3.2%
$395
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1976
$100 from 1976 had already become $260 by
1994, on its way to $395 in 2011; 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: 2011
In 2011, prices rose 3.2% and $100 from 1976 had the buying
power of $395; the year's average CPI of 224.939 is the level
behind every 2011 figure on this page.
2011 brought the fastest inflation of the post-recession recovery. Consumer
prices rose 3.2%, roughly double the 2010 pace, and the cause was mostly at the
pump and the grocery store. Unrest across the Middle East and North Africa,
including the war in Libya, pushed gasoline to an annual average of $3.52 a
gallon, the highest yearly figure recorded to that point. Food prices also
rose faster than the overall index.
Household budgets did not keep up. The median household income was $50,054,
barely above the year before, and the median new home sold for about $227,200.
The federal minimum wage stayed at $7.25 and a first-class stamp at 44 cents.
Policy stayed loose. The Federal Reserve kept its policy rate near zero and
launched Operation Twist in September to lower long-term rates. Washington
spent the summer in a debt-ceiling fight that ended in S&P’s August downgrade
of the U.S. credit rating. The inflation spike proved temporary: the
2011 rate was the high point of the early 2010s, and prices grew more slowly
in every year that followed until 2017.
MLA: “Inflation from 1976 to 2011: $100 is worth $395 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1976-to-2011/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1976 to 2011. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1976-to-2011/