$100 in 1976 is worth $476 in 2021,
because prices increased 376.2% over that period, an average of
3.53% a year.
$100 in 1976 has
the same buying power as
$476
in 2021
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
376.2%
Average inflation rate
3.53% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$476
Price difference ($100 base)
$376
CPI in 1976
56.9
CPI in 2021
270.97
Inflation in 1976
5.76%
Inflation in 2021
4.70%
$100 in 1976 → 2021
$476
$100 in 2021 → 1976
$21.00
What happened to prices between 1976 and 2021
Between 1976 and 2021, the Consumer Price Index went from 56.9 to 270.97.
Cumulatively, prices increased 376.2%, which works out to an average of
3.53% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1976 bought what
$0.21 buys in 2021: the 1976 dollar
lost 79.0% of its purchasing power over
these 45 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 2021 at the same ratio, 4.76: $1,000 becomes
$4,762, and $10,000 becomes $47,622.
Amount in 1976
Value in 2021
$1.00
$4.76
$5.00
$23.81
$10.00
$47.62
$20.00
$95.24
$50.00
$238
$100
$476
$500
$2,381
$1,000
$4,762
$5,000
$23,811
$10,000
$47,622
$100,000
$476,221
$1,000,000
$4,762,214
Inflation by spending category, 1976–2021
Between 1976 and 2021, medical care rose the most, up 910.1%, while apparel rose the least, up 60.9%, against 376.2% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1976
spending costs in 2021, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1976 →
All items (CPI-U)
3.53%
$476
Medical care
5.27%
$1,010
Energy
3.77%
$528
Housing
3.74%
$522
Core (all items less food & energy)
3.56%
$483
Food
3.40%
$451
Transportation
3.23%
$419
Apparel
1.06%
$161
Not shown because the BLS began these indexes after 1976: recreation (1993–), education & communication (1993–).
Decade by decade: 1976 to 2021
Prices climbed fastest in the 1970s, averaging 9.70% a year, and slowest in the 2010s (1.73% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1976–2021 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
2010–2020
1.73%
18.7%
$455
2020–2021
4.70%
4.7%
$476
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1976
$100 from 1976 had already become $286 by
1998, on its way to $476 in 2021; 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: 2021
In 2021, prices rose 4.7% and $100 from 1976 had the buying
power of $476; the year's average CPI of 270.97 is the level
behind every 2021 figure on this page.
2021 was the year inflation stopped being background noise. Consumer prices
rose 4.7% on average for the year, and the pace kept building as the months
went on: by December, the 12-month rate had reached 7.0%, the highest since
1982. The proximate cause was a supply chain that could not keep up with a
fast-reopening economy. A global semiconductor shortage choked new car
production and pushed used vehicle prices up by more than a third, the
single largest line item in the year’s inflation math. Lumber, appliances,
and shipping capacity told versions of the same story: demand snapped back
faster than factories, ports, and truckers could handle it. Washington added
fuel in March with the $1.9 trillion American Rescue Plan, on top of the
relief already in the pipeline since 2020. For most of the year, the Federal
Reserve called the price surge “transitory,” a temporary reopening effect
expected to fade on its own, and held its policy rate near zero. By
November, with inflation still climbing, the Fed reversed course and began
winding down its bond purchases, the first step toward the rate hikes that
would follow in 2022. Gas averaged $3.01 a gallon for the year, up from
about $2.17 in 2020, while the federal minimum wage held at $7.25,
unchanged since 2009. In hindsight, 2021 reads as the hinge year: the point
where “transitory” inflation became the multi-year fight the Fed spent the
next two years trying to win.
MLA: “Inflation from 1976 to 2021: $100 is worth $476 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1976-to-2021/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1976 to 2021. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1976-to-2021/