$100 in 1977 is worth $354 in 2009,
because prices increased 254.0% over that period, an average of
4.03% a year.
$100 in 1977 has
the same buying power as
$354
in 2009
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
254.0%
Average inflation rate
4.03% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$354
Price difference ($100 base)
$254
CPI in 1977
60.6
CPI in 2009
214.537
Inflation in 1977
6.50%
Inflation in 2009
-0.36%
$100 in 1977 → 2009
$354
$100 in 2009 → 1977
$28.25
What happened to prices between 1977 and 2009
Between 1977 and 2009, the Consumer Price Index went from 60.6 to 214.537.
Cumulatively, prices increased 254.0%, which works out to an average of
4.03% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1977 bought what
$0.28 buys in 2009: the 1977 dollar
lost 71.8% of its purchasing power over
these 32 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 2009 at the same ratio, 3.54: $1,000 becomes
$3,540, and $10,000 becomes $35,402.
Amount in 1977
Value in 2009
$1.00
$3.54
$5.00
$17.70
$10.00
$35.40
$20.00
$70.80
$50.00
$177
$100
$354
$500
$1,770
$1,000
$3,540
$5,000
$17,701
$10,000
$35,402
$100,000
$354,021
$1,000,000
$3,540,215
Inflation by spending category, 1977–2009
Between 1977 and 2009, medical care rose the most, up 559.0%, while apparel rose the least, up 52.8%, against 254.0% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1977
spending costs in 2009, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1977 →
All items (CPI-U)
4.03%
$354
Medical care
6.07%
$659
Energy
4.35%
$391
Housing
4.24%
$378
Core (all items less food & energy)
4.08%
$359
Food
3.83%
$333
Transportation
3.53%
$304
Apparel
1.33%
$153
Not shown because the BLS began these indexes after 1977: recreation (1993–), education & communication (1993–).
Decade by decade: 1977 to 2009
Prices climbed fastest in the 1970s, averaging 10.79% a year, and slowest in the 2000s (2.47% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1977–2009 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
2000–2009
2.47%
24.6%
$354
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1977
$100 from 1977 had already become $238 by
1993, on its way to $354 in 2009; 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: 2009
In 2009, prices fell 0.4% and $100 from 1977 had the buying
power of $354; the year's average CPI of 214.537 is the level
behind every 2009 figure on this page.
2009 is the rarest kind of year in the modern price data: one where the cost
of living went down. The CPI fell 0.4%, the first full-year deflation
since 1955, as the Great Recession hollowed out demand and oil unwound from
its $147 spike the summer before. Gasoline that had cost over $4 a gallon in
July 2008 averaged $2.35 in 2009, and that energy collapse dragged the
12-month inflation rate to −2.1% by July, the deepest reading since 1950.
Policymakers treated falling prices not as relief but as a warning: deflation
raises the real weight of debt precisely when households are drowning in it,
which is why the Federal Reserve pinned interest rates near zero, began buying
bonds by the hundreds of billions, and Washington passed a $787 billion
stimulus. The medicine took: prices stabilized within a year, and 2009 remains
the textbook case of why central banks fear deflation more than moderate
inflation.
MLA: “Inflation from 1977 to 2009: $100 is worth $354 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1977-to-2009/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1977 to 2009. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1977-to-2009/