Average Inflation Rate

Find the compound annual inflation rate and total cumulative inflation between any two years.

Compound Annual Inflation

From year

To year

The "to" year must be later than the "from" year.

Compound annual rate

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Total cumulative inflation

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Period

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Year-over-year inflation

Annual inflation (percent) for each year in your selected range.

Annual inflation Average over period

Reading the numbers

The compound annual rate smooths all the ups and downs into a single steady rate that, applied every year, would produce the same total price change. It is calculated as (CPI_to / CPI_from)^{1/(to−from)} − 1.

The total cumulative inflation is simply the overall percentage change in the CPI across the whole period. A period of 24 years at a compound rate near 2.5% does not mean "24 × 2.5%" — compounding means the total lands higher than the naive sum, which is exactly why long horizons magnify even modest inflation.

The chart shows the actual year-over-year inflation for each year in the range, so you can see how averages hide volatility: the 1970s and early 1980s spike far above the long-run average, while the 2010s mostly run below it. Use the CPI history table to inspect the raw index values, or jump to the purchasing power converter to see these rates in dollar terms.