$100 in 1977 is worth $312 in 2004,
because prices increased 211.7% over that period, an average of
4.30% a year.
$100 in 1977 has
the same buying power as
$312
in 2004
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
211.7%
Average inflation rate
4.30% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$312
Price difference ($100 base)
$212
CPI in 1977
60.6
CPI in 2004
188.9
Inflation in 1977
6.50%
Inflation in 2004
2.66%
$100 in 1977 → 2004
$312
$100 in 2004 → 1977
$32.08
What happened to prices between 1977 and 2004
Between 1977 and 2004, the Consumer Price Index went from 60.6 to 188.9.
Cumulatively, prices increased 211.7%, which works out to an average of
4.30% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1977 bought what
$0.32 buys in 2004: the 1977 dollar
lost 67.9% of its purchasing power over
these 27 years.
Consumer prices rose 6.5% in 1977, ticking back up from 1976’s
5.8% as the economic recovery strengthened, wages climbed, and energy costs
pushed higher again. The year opened with a warning about that energy
dependence: record cold across the Midwest and Northeast in January and
February strained natural gas supplies so badly that schools and factories in
several states shut down for days to conserve fuel. Jimmy Carter, inaugurated
that January, made energy policy a centerpiece of his presidency, and
Congress created the cabinet-level Department of Energy that August to
consolidate programs built up piecemeal since the 1973 oil embargo. Culture
offered some relief from the anxiety: released that May, Star Wars became the
highest-grossing film in history to that point, drawing lines around theater
blocks for months. The year also closed an era in a different way. Elvis
Presley was found dead at his Graceland home on August 16 at age 42, drawing
tens of thousands of mourners to Memphis. A median household earned $13,572
in 1977, a new home sold for a median $48,800, and gas averaged 62 cents a
gallon. Consumer prices stood 512.1% above their 1913 level,
with the energy anxieties of the year setting up the harder shocks of 1978
and 1979.
Every 1977 amount converts to 2004 at the same ratio, 3.12: $1,000 becomes
$3,117, and $10,000 becomes $31,172.
Amount in 1977
Value in 2004
$1.00
$3.12
$5.00
$15.59
$10.00
$31.17
$20.00
$62.34
$50.00
$156
$100
$312
$500
$1,559
$1,000
$3,117
$5,000
$15,586
$10,000
$31,172
$100,000
$311,716
$1,000,000
$3,117,162
Inflation by spending category, 1977–2004
Between 1977 and 2004, medical care rose the most, up 444.0%, while apparel rose the least, up 53.2%, against 211.7% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1977
spending costs in 2004, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1977 →
All items (CPI-U)
4.30%
$312
Medical care
6.47%
$544
Housing
4.52%
$330
Core (all items less food & energy)
4.43%
$322
Energy
4.24%
$306
Food
3.95%
$284
Transportation
3.84%
$276
Apparel
1.59%
$153
Not shown because the BLS began these indexes after 1977: recreation (1993–), education & communication (1993–).
Decade by decade: 1977 to 2004
Prices climbed fastest in the 1970s, averaging 10.79% a year, and slowest in the 2000s (2.34% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1977–2004 change:
Years
Avg. yearly inflation
Price change
$100 from 1977, at end
1977–1980
10.79%
36.0%
$136
1980–1990
4.72%
58.6%
$216
1990–2000
2.80%
31.8%
$284
2000–2004
2.34%
9.7%
$312
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1977
$100 from 1977 had already become $216 by
1990, on its way to $312 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 1977 had the buying
power of $312; 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 1977 to 2004: $100 is worth $312 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1977-to-2004/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1977 to 2004. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1977-to-2004/