$100 in 1976 is worth $404 in 2012,
because prices increased 303.5% over that period, an average of
3.95% a year.
$100 in 1976 has
the same buying power as
$404
in 2012
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
303.5%
Average inflation rate
3.95% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$404
Price difference ($100 base)
$304
CPI in 1976
56.9
CPI in 2012
229.594
Inflation in 1976
5.76%
Inflation in 2012
2.07%
$100 in 1976 → 2012
$404
$100 in 2012 → 1976
$24.78
What happened to prices between 1976 and 2012
Between 1976 and 2012, the Consumer Price Index went from 56.9 to 229.594.
Cumulatively, prices increased 303.5%, which works out to an average of
3.95% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1976 bought what
$0.25 buys in 2012: the 1976 dollar
lost 75.2% of its purchasing power over
these 36 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 2012 at the same ratio, 4.04: $1,000 becomes
$4,035, and $10,000 becomes $40,350.
Amount in 1976
Value in 2012
$1.00
$4.04
$5.00
$20.18
$10.00
$40.35
$20.00
$80.70
$50.00
$202
$100
$404
$500
$2,018
$1,000
$4,035
$5,000
$20,175
$10,000
$40,350
$100,000
$403,504
$1,000,000
$4,035,044
Inflation by spending category, 1976–2012
Between 1976 and 2012, medical care rose the most, up 697.9%, while apparel rose the least, up 67.9%, against 303.5% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1976
spending costs in 2012, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1976 →
All items (CPI-U)
3.95%
$404
Medical care
5.94%
$798
Energy
4.83%
$546
Housing
4.03%
$414
Core (all items less food & energy)
3.93%
$400
Transportation
3.89%
$394
Food
3.77%
$380
Apparel
1.45%
$168
Not shown because the BLS began these indexes after 1976: recreation (1993–), education & communication (1993–).
Decade by decade: 1976 to 2012
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 1976–2012 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
2010–2012
2.61%
5.3%
$404
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1976
$100 from 1976 had already become $260 by
1994, on its way to $404 in 2012; 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: 2012
In 2012, prices rose 2.1% and $100 from 1976 had the buying
power of $404; the year's average CPI of 229.594 is the level
behind every 2012 figure on this page.
2012 put a number on what the Federal Reserve was aiming for. In January the
Fed announced a 2% inflation target, and consumer prices rose 2.1% for the
year, almost exactly on it. Gasoline averaged $3.62 a gallon, another annual
high, but the pace of increase cooled from 2011’s 3.2% as food and core prices
grew more slowly.
The bigger story was housing and jobs. Home prices began to recover, and the
median new home sold for about $245,200, up from $227,200 the year before.
Median household income was $51,017. The federal minimum wage held at $7.25,
and a first-class stamp rose to 45 cents.
In September the Fed started a third round of asset purchases, this one with
no fixed end date, aimed at lowering unemployment. Overseas, the European
Central Bank’s July pledge to do “whatever it takes” to save the euro calmed
bond markets. A summer drought across the Midwest drove corn and soybean
prices to records, a shock that reached grocery shelves only partly, because
most of what shoppers pay for food covers processing and transport rather than
raw crops.
MLA: “Inflation from 1976 to 2012: $100 is worth $404 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1976-to-2012/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1976 to 2012. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1976-to-2012/