$100 in 1977 is worth $427 in 2020,
because prices increased 327.1% over that period, an average of
3.43% a year.
$100 in 1977 has
the same buying power as
$427
in 2020
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
327.1%
Average inflation rate
3.43% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$427
Price difference ($100 base)
$327
CPI in 1977
60.6
CPI in 2020
258.811
Inflation in 1977
6.50%
Inflation in 2020
1.23%
$100 in 1977 → 2020
$427
$100 in 2020 → 1977
$23.41
What happened to prices between 1977 and 2020
Between 1977 and 2020, the Consumer Price Index went from 60.6 to 258.811.
Cumulatively, prices increased 327.1%, which works out to an average of
3.43% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1977 bought what
$0.23 buys in 2020: the 1977 dollar
lost 76.6% of its purchasing power over
these 43 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 2020 at the same ratio, 4.27: $1,000 becomes
$4,271, and $10,000 becomes $42,708.
Amount in 1977
Value in 2020
$1.00
$4.27
$5.00
$21.35
$10.00
$42.71
$20.00
$85.42
$50.00
$214
$100
$427
$500
$2,135
$1,000
$4,271
$5,000
$21,354
$10,000
$42,708
$100,000
$427,081
$1,000,000
$4,270,809
Inflation by spending category, 1977–2020
Between 1977 and 2020, medical care rose the most, up 810.3%, while apparel rose the least, up 50.2%, against 327.1% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1977
spending costs in 2020, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1977 →
All items (CPI-U)
3.43%
$427
Medical care
5.27%
$910
Housing
3.68%
$473
Core (all items less food & energy)
3.50%
$439
Food
3.32%
$408
Energy
3.27%
$399
Transportation
2.90%
$341
Apparel
0.95%
$150
Not shown because the BLS began these indexes after 1977: recreation (1993–), education & communication (1993–).
Decade by decade: 1977 to 2020
Prices climbed fastest in the 1970s, averaging 10.79% a year, and slowest in the 2010s (1.73% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1977–2020 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
2010–2020
1.73%
18.7%
$427
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1977
$100 from 1977 had already become $275 by
1999, on its way to $427 in 2020; 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: 2020
In 2020, prices rose 1.2% and $100 from 1977 had the buying
power of $427; the year's average CPI of 258.811 is the level
behind every 2020 figure on this page.
2020 was the year the pandemic rewired the price data without triggering the
inflation spike that followed it. Consumer prices rose just 1.2% for the
year, the mildest pace since 2015, as COVID-19 lockdowns emptied roads,
closed airports, and crushed energy demand. Oil told the starkest story: on
April 20, U.S. crude futures fell to about negative $37 a barrel, the first
negative settlement in the market’s history, as storage capacity ran out and no one
wanted the physical barrels. Gasoline followed it down, falling to about
$1.80 a gallon nationally that month before recovering to average $2.17 for
the year. Grocery prices moved the other way: pantry stocking and
meatpacking-plant disruptions pushed food-at-home costs up faster than
usual, a rare case of food and energy pulling the index in opposite
directions. Washington answered with the $2.2 trillion CARES Act, signed
March 27, which sent $1,200 payments to most adults and added $600 a week
to unemployment benefits as states ordered widespread business closures.
The Federal Reserve cut its policy rate to near zero in two emergency moves
that same month and pledged to buy Treasury and mortgage bonds “in the
amounts needed” to keep credit markets working, an open-ended commitment
beyond even its 2008 response. None of it showed up in the CPI yet: the
stimulus, the supply shocks, and the reopening whiplash that followed would
build into the fastest inflation in four decades over the next two years.
MLA: “Inflation from 1977 to 2020: $100 is worth $427 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1977-to-2020/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1977 to 2020. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1977-to-2020/