Inflation Calculator Tutorial

This tutorial will help you to use the BLS inflation calculator.

To calculate the value of current dollars in an earlier period, or to calculate the current value of dollar amounts from years ago, scroll down to the Calculators section and click on the Inflation link near the bottom of the BLS homepage.

The inflation calculator uses annual average indexes for a given calendar year. For the current year, the latest monthly index value isused. To calculate the buying power in 2008 of $100 in 1998, enter $100 in the first field. Next, select 1998 from the drop-down menu.

Click on the "Calculate" button.

$100.00 in 1998 has the same buying power as $131.00 in 2008.

This concludes the tutorial. Thank you for using the Bureau of Labor Statistics’ website.