$100 in 1977 is worth $371 in 2011,
because prices increased 271.2% over that period, an average of
3.93% a year.
$100 in 1977 has
the same buying power as
$371
in 2011
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
271.2%
Average inflation rate
3.93% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$371
Price difference ($100 base)
$271
CPI in 1977
60.6
CPI in 2011
224.939
Inflation in 1977
6.50%
Inflation in 2011
3.16%
$100 in 1977 → 2011
$371
$100 in 2011 → 1977
$26.94
What happened to prices between 1977 and 2011
Between 1977 and 2011, the Consumer Price Index went from 60.6 to 224.939.
Cumulatively, prices increased 271.2%, which works out to an average of
3.93% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1977 bought what
$0.27 buys in 2011: the 1977 dollar
lost 73.1% of its purchasing power over
these 34 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 2011 at the same ratio, 3.71: $1,000 becomes
$3,712, and $10,000 becomes $37,119.
Amount in 1977
Value in 2011
$1.00
$3.71
$5.00
$18.56
$10.00
$37.12
$20.00
$74.24
$50.00
$186
$100
$371
$500
$1,856
$1,000
$3,712
$5,000
$18,559
$10,000
$37,119
$100,000
$371,186
$1,000,000
$3,711,865
Inflation by spending category, 1977–2011
Between 1977 and 2011, medical care rose the most, up 602.2%, while apparel rose the least, up 55.4%, against 271.2% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1977
spending costs in 2011, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1977 →
All items (CPI-U)
3.93%
$371
Medical care
5.90%
$702
Energy
4.81%
$494
Housing
4.02%
$382
Core (all items less food & energy)
3.91%
$369
Transportation
3.84%
$360
Food
3.73%
$348
Apparel
1.30%
$155
Not shown because the BLS began these indexes after 1977: recreation (1993–), education & communication (1993–).
Decade by decade: 1977 to 2011
Prices climbed fastest in the 1970s, averaging 10.79% a year, and slowest in the 2000s (2.39% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1977–2011 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
2000–2010
2.39%
26.6%
$360
2010–2011
3.16%
3.2%
$371
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1977
$100 from 1977 had already become $238 by
1993, on its way to $371 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 1977 had the buying
power of $371; 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 1977 to 2011: $100 is worth $371 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1977-to-2011/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1977 to 2011. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1977-to-2011/