$100 in 1977 is worth $391 in 2015,
because prices increased 291.1% over that period, an average of
3.65% a year.
$100 in 1977 has
the same buying power as
$391
in 2015
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
291.1%
Average inflation rate
3.65% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$391
Price difference ($100 base)
$291
CPI in 1977
60.6
CPI in 2015
237.017
Inflation in 1977
6.50%
Inflation in 2015
0.12%
$100 in 1977 → 2015
$391
$100 in 2015 → 1977
$25.57
What happened to prices between 1977 and 2015
Between 1977 and 2015, the Consumer Price Index went from 60.6 to 237.017.
Cumulatively, prices increased 291.1%, which works out to an average of
3.65% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1977 bought what
$0.26 buys in 2015: the 1977 dollar
lost 74.4% of its purchasing power over
these 38 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 2015 at the same ratio, 3.91: $1,000 becomes
$3,911, and $10,000 becomes $39,112.
Amount in 1977
Value in 2015
$1.00
$3.91
$5.00
$19.56
$10.00
$39.11
$20.00
$78.22
$50.00
$196
$100
$391
$500
$1,956
$1,000
$3,911
$5,000
$19,556
$10,000
$39,112
$100,000
$391,117
$1,000,000
$3,911,172
Inflation by spending category, 1977–2015
Between 1977 and 2015, medical care rose the most, up 683.8%, while apparel rose the least, up 60.2%, against 291.1% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1977
spending costs in 2015, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1977 →
All items (CPI-U)
3.65%
$391
Medical care
5.57%
$784
Housing
3.81%
$415
Energy
3.79%
$411
Core (all items less food & energy)
3.70%
$397
Food
3.56%
$377
Transportation
3.25%
$337
Apparel
1.25%
$160
Not shown because the BLS began these indexes after 1977: recreation (1993–), education & communication (1993–).
Decade by decade: 1977 to 2015
Prices climbed fastest in the 1970s, averaging 10.79% a year, and slowest in the 2010s (1.68% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1977–2015 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
2010–2015
1.68%
8.7%
$391
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1977
$100 from 1977 had already become $251 by
1995, on its way to $391 in 2015; 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: 2015
In 2015, prices rose 0.1% and $100 from 1977 had the buying
power of $391; the year's average CPI of 237.017 is the level
behind every 2015 figure on this page.
2015 was almost a year with no inflation at all. Consumer prices rose 0.1%,
the smallest increase since the 2009 decline, because energy prices kept
falling. Gasoline averaged $2.45 a gallon, down from $3.37 in 2014, and a
strong dollar made imported goods cheaper. The picture was different outside
food and energy: core prices rose about 1.8% as rents and medical costs
climbed.
Incomes finally showed real progress. Median household income reached $56,516,
a large jump from $53,657, and the median new home sold for about $296,400. The
federal minimum wage stayed at $7.25, and a first-class stamp stayed at 49
cents.
The Federal Reserve chose December to end its zero-rate policy, raising the
target range to 0.25–0.50% for the first time since 2006. It moved even
though headline inflation was far under 2%, arguing that the drag from
energy was temporary. Earlier, a currency shift in China in August had shaken
global markets and pushed oil below $40 a barrel. Prices in 2015 ended
the year barely above their 2014 level.
MLA: “Inflation from 1977 to 2015: $100 is worth $391 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1977-to-2015/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1977 to 2015. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1977-to-2015/