Your grandparents’ first house, your parents’ starting salary, the $20 bill tucked in an old birthday card: old dollar amounts always sound small. The fair way to compare them is to adjust for inflation, and the government’s Consumer Price Index (CPI) is the standard tool for that. Here’s what the numbers say, and how to use them without fooling yourself.
What $100 from past years is worth now
These figures use the Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI for all urban consumers: the annual average for the past year, and August 2026 (the latest month available when this was written) for today.
| $100 in… | Has the buying power of… (Aug 2026) |
|---|---|
| 1950 | $1,389.96 |
| 1970 | $863.35 |
| 1980 | $406.53 |
| 1990 | $256.30 |
| 2000 | $194.53 |
| 2010 | $153.62 |
| 2020 | $129.43 |
| 2024 | $106.79 |
| 2025 | $104.05 |
For any year since 1913, see our inflation pages, which recalculate as soon as BLS publishes a new month.
How the math works
The CPI is a price index: a number that tracks what a typical basket of goods and services costs. To convert money between years, divide the CPI of the later date by the CPI of the earlier year, and multiply.
Example: 1980 to today
The CPI averaged 82.4 in 1980. In August 2026 it was 334.98. So $100 × (334.98 ÷ 82.4) = $406.53. In other words, prices overall are a little over four times what they were in 1980.
You can run the reverse, too. $100 today buys what about $39 bought in 1990 (100 × 130.7 ÷ 334.98).
Average inflation is smaller than it feels
A quadrupling since 1980 sounds dramatic, but spread over 46 years it works out to an average of roughly 3.1% a year. Since 2000, the average is about 2.6% a year. The trouble is that inflation isn’t steady. Some years are calm; others, like 2021 and 2022, jump. Annual-average CPI rose about 3.0% from 2023 to 2024 and about 2.6% from 2024 to 2025.
How the CPI is measured
Every month, BLS staff collect prices for a large sample of goods and services in cities across the country: food, rent, gas, clothing, medical care, haircuts, airline tickets and much more. Each item is weighted by how much households actually spend on it, based on government spending surveys, so a rise in rent counts for far more than a rise in the price of sugar. The result is one index number. What matters is how that number changes over time, not the number itself.
There are several versions. The one most people mean, and the one we use, is the CPI for All Urban Consumers (CPI-U), U.S. city average, all items. It covers most of the U.S. population.
A few more conversions
| Then | Now (Aug 2026 dollars) |
|---|---|
| $20 in 1990 | $51.26 |
| $5,000 in 1980 | $20,326 |
| $25,000 salary in 1990 | about $64,000 |
| $8,000 in 2020 | about $10,354 |
Three real-life ways to use this
1. Judging an old salary or price
Example
Diane’s mom started teaching in 1990 at a salary that sounds tiny now. To compare fairly, Diane multiplies it by 256.30 ÷ 100, about 2.56. A $25,000 salary in 1990 equals roughly $64,000 in August 2026 dollars.
2. Checking whether your raise beat inflation
If you got a 3% raise and prices rose 2.6% over the same year, your buying power grew by only about 0.4%. If prices rose more than your raise, you effectively took a pay cut. Compare your raise with the CPI change over the same months, not with a headline from a different period.
3. Setting savings goals
If you’re saving for something five or ten years away, today’s price will likely be higher by then. Building a modest inflation cushion into the target, or reviewing it every year, keeps the goal realistic. Our savings goal calculator shows how much to set aside each month.
Why prices rise in the first place
In very short form: prices rise when demand for goods and services grows faster than the supply of them, or when the cost of making and delivering them goes up (energy, wages, materials, shipping). The Federal Reserve aims to keep inflation around 2% a year over time, because a small, steady rise is easier for households and businesses to plan around than sudden jumps or falling prices.
The quiet cost: cash that sits still
Inflation matters most for money you keep. A handy rule of thumb is the “rule of 72”: divide 72 by the yearly inflation rate to estimate how many years it takes prices to double. At 3%, that’s about 24 years. So $10,000 kept in a drawer for 24 years would buy roughly half as much at the end.
Example
Linda in Tucson kept $8,000 of emergency savings in a checking account paying nothing from August 2020 to August 2026. Using the CPI, $8,000 in 2020 money is worth about $10,354 in 2026 money. Her balance never changed, but its buying power fell by almost a quarter. An FDIC-insured high-yield savings account wouldn’t have made her rich, but it would have closed much of that gap.
Mistakes people make comparing prices across years
- Using the wrong start date. Adjusting a 1985 price with a 1980 index overstates the change. Use the year the price was actually paid.
- Mixing annual and monthly figures. Our table uses annual averages for past years and the latest month for today, which is the usual approach for “what is it worth now.”
- Treating wages and prices separately. Average pay has also risen since 1980, so a house that cost four times as much may not be four times harder to afford. The full picture needs both.
- Comparing to a different country. The U.S. CPI applies to U.S. dollars and U.S. prices only.
What the CPI can’t tell you
- Your personal inflation rate. The CPI is an average. If you rent in a fast-growing city or drive a lot, your costs may rise faster.
- Specific items. Some things rose far faster than the average (college, health care, housing in many areas); others got cheaper (many electronics). For groceries, our grocery price tracker shows individual items.
- Quality changes. A 1990 car and a 2026 car aren’t the same product, and the CPI tries to account for that, which is one reason “my car costs 5× more” and “prices are 2.6× higher” can both be true.
Quick answers
Type a question like “$100 in 1975 worth today” into our Quick Answers box and you’ll get the official figure with the formula. Old money isn’t as small as it looks; it’s just measured in an older currency of buying power.
