$100 in 1977 is worth $404 in 2017,
because prices increased 304.5% over that period, an average of
3.56% a year.
$100 in 1977 has
the same buying power as
$404
in 2017
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
304.5%
Average inflation rate
3.56% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$404
Price difference ($100 base)
$304
CPI in 1977
60.6
CPI in 2017
245.12
Inflation in 1977
6.50%
Inflation in 2017
2.13%
$100 in 1977 → 2017
$404
$100 in 2017 → 1977
$24.72
What happened to prices between 1977 and 2017
Between 1977 and 2017, the Consumer Price Index went from 60.6 to 245.12.
Cumulatively, prices increased 304.5%, which works out to an average of
3.56% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1977 bought what
$0.25 buys in 2017: the 1977 dollar
lost 75.3% of its purchasing power over
these 40 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 2017 at the same ratio, 4.04: $1,000 becomes
$4,045, and $10,000 becomes $40,449.
Amount in 1977
Value in 2017
$1.00
$4.04
$5.00
$20.22
$10.00
$40.45
$20.00
$80.90
$50.00
$202
$100
$404
$500
$2,022
$1,000
$4,045
$5,000
$20,224
$10,000
$40,449
$100,000
$404,488
$1,000,000
$4,044,884
Inflation by spending category, 1977–2017
Between 1977 and 2017, medical care rose the most, up 733.9%, while apparel rose the least, up 59.8%, against 304.5% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1977
spending costs in 2017, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1977 →
All items (CPI-U)
3.56%
$404
Medical care
5.45%
$834
Housing
3.76%
$438
Energy
3.62%
$414
Core (all items less food & energy)
3.61%
$413
Food
3.41%
$382
Transportation
3.12%
$342
Apparel
1.18%
$160
Not shown because the BLS began these indexes after 1977: recreation (1993–), education & communication (1993–).
Decade by decade: 1977 to 2017
Prices climbed fastest in the 1970s, averaging 10.79% a year, and slowest in the 2010s (1.69% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1977–2017 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
2010–2017
1.69%
12.4%
$404
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1977
$100 from 1977 had already become $265 by
1997, on its way to $404 in 2017; 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: 2017
In 2017, prices rose 2.1% and $100 from 1977 had the buying
power of $404; the year's average CPI of 245.12 is the level
behind every 2017 figure on this page.
2017 pushed consumer prices back above the Federal Reserve’s 2% target. The
CPI rose 2.1%, the first reading over 2% in five years, helped by a rebound
in energy after OPEC’s output cuts and by a storm-related spike at the pump:
Hurricane Harvey shut a large part of Gulf Coast refining in late August.
Gasoline averaged $2.42 a gallon, up from $2.14 in 2016.
Household incomes kept rising. The median household income reached $61,372,
and the median new home sold for about $322,100. The federal minimum wage
stayed at $7.25, its eighth year at that level, and a first-class stamp rose
to 49 cents.
The Fed raised rates three times, to 1.25–1.50%, and in October began
letting its bond holdings shrink. Congress passed the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act
in December, lowering the corporate rate to 21%. Even with unemployment near
4%, core inflation stayed under 2%, a puzzle that shaped Fed debates for the
next two years.
MLA: “Inflation from 1977 to 2017: $100 is worth $404 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1977-to-2017/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1977 to 2017. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1977-to-2017/