What is a dollar worth?
This inflation calculator uses the consumer price index (CPI), which measures the average change in prices over time using a periodically updated market basket of goods and services. Through 1977, there was just one CPI measure. Starting in 1978, our calculator uses the CPI for all urban consumers (CPI-U).
The Minneapolis Fed maintains historical tables of inflation rates from 1913 to the present (when the modern methodology began) and estimated rates back to the year 1800 using various pre-1913 measures.
- Consumer Price Index and Inflation Rates, 1913–
- Consumer Price Index and Inflation Rates (Estimate), 1800–
You can get the latest monthly data and learn more about different measures of inflation from the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
More on inflation from the Minneapolis Fed
Conversations with the Fed: Inflation 101
Event on March 31, 2022
Update on Inflation and Monetary Policy
March 18, 2022
Sizing up the long-term cost of inflation
February 8, 2022