Inflation calculator

What the calculator shows

Inflation is the rise in the general level of prices. The calculator takes the official consumer price index (CPI) for your country, which tracks the cost of a typical basket of goods and services, and compares its average level in two years. If the index is 50% higher in the later year, an amount from the earlier year needs to be 50% bigger to buy the same things.

What 100 from earlier years is worth in 2025

Country	100 in 1990	100 in 2000	100 in 2015	100 in 2020
United States	246.32	186.96	135.83	124.39
United Kingdom	247.58	190.37	138.40	127.32
Canada	209.44	172.12	129.70	119.85
Australia	248.30	199.57	132.46	122.84
New Zealand	223.98	188.14	134.20	124.67
Euro area	–	169.30	128.75	122.55
UAE	–	–	112.66	109.85
Saudi Arabia	196.67	178.92	118.62	112.24

So $100 in 2000 had the same buying power as about $187 in 2025 in the United States. Prices in the Gulf have risen much more slowly than in the West since 2020: an average of about 2% a year in the UAE and Saudi Arabia, against 4% to 5% in the UK, US, Australia and New Zealand.

Where the numbers come from

• United States: CPI-U, all items, US city average, from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, back to 1913.
• United Kingdom: the ONS Consumer Prices Index from 1988, and before that the ONS long-run price index, joined to the CPI so the series runs back to 1800.
• Canada: Statistics Canada’s all-items CPI, from 1914.
• Australia: the ABS all-groups CPI for the eight capital cities, averaged over each calendar year, from 1949.
• New Zealand: the Stats NZ all-groups CPI, averaged over each calendar year, from 1914.
• Euro area: Eurostat’s harmonised index of consumer prices (HICP), from 1996 when it began.
• UAE: the Federal Competitiveness and Statistics Centre’s national CPI, from 2008.
• Saudi Arabia: the General Authority for Statistics CPI as published by the World Bank, from 1963.

All figures are annual averages, and 2025 is the latest full year. We’ll add 2026 once the full-year figures are published in early 2027.

Things to bear in mind

• CPI is an average. Your own costs may have risen faster or slower, depending on what you spend on. Rent, energy and food often move differently from the overall index.
• Over very long periods the basket changes completely. Comparing 1900 with today tells you about the cost of living in general, not the price of any one item.
• To see whether a pay rise kept up with prices, put your old salary in with the year you earned it and compare the result with what you earn now.
• Savings lose value whenever the interest rate is below inflation. The compound interest calculator shows what a balance grows to before inflation.