Inflation calculator
What an amount is worth after years of inflation, in both directions.
How it works
Converts an amount between years at a given average inflation rate, forwards or backwards.
The compounding is what makes inflation deceptive. At 3% a year, prices double in about 24 years — the rule of 72 divided by the rate gives a close approximation. Over a working life of forty years, the same 3% multiplies prices by more than three.
The rate is yours to supply, because published rates are averages of a basket that may not resemble your spending. Housing, education and healthcare have run well above headline inflation in most developed economies for decades, while consumer electronics have run below it and sometimes negative.
This tool runs entirely in your browser. Nothing you enter is sent to a server, logged or stored, and the page keeps working with the network disconnected.
Common questions
- How long does it take for prices to double?
- Divide 72 by the inflation rate. At 3% that is 24 years; at 6%, twelve.
- Why does my experience of inflation differ from the published rate?
- Published rates average a fixed basket. Housing, education and healthcare have outpaced it for decades in most developed economies, so a household weighted toward those sees more.
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Sources
- Calculated on this page — At One Place