Political Science

by Robert Sahr  

For some of the charts, users of Firefox and other non-Internet Explorer web browsers might have to use the “open link target in IE” option or equivalent.  I will work to correct this difficulty in a future revision. 

Revised March 4, 2012 for the 1774-2022 tables (Excel and pdf) and 2010, 2011, and 2012 tables ONLY (pdf and Excel),  using final 2011 CPI (CPI = 2.24939) and OMB and CBO inflation estimates for 2011-2021 as of January-February 2012. 

Remaining tables (Excel and pdf) will be revised soon to reflect updated inflation estimates for 2012 and later from the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) and the Congressional Budget Office (CBO).

Other tables have been revised using data available as of June 2011.

Consumer Price Index (CPI) conversion factors to determine the value of dollars of 1774 to estimated 2022 in dollars of 2012 (estimated), 2011, 2010, 2009, 2008, 2007, 2006, 2005, 2004, 2003, 2002, 2001, 2000, 1999, 1998, 1997, 1996, 1995, CPI (1982-84), and two special CPI measures, CPI-U-X1 (starting 1950), and CPI-U-RS (starting 1947).

To ease understanding of the value of dollar figures over time, the materials on this page “re-base” the official CPI from its current base (1982-84 average = 1.000) to dollars of more recent years (for example, 2009 = 1.000).

All inflation conversion factors use year-to-year inflation, not December-to-December inflation.  Final 2011 CPI is from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, Consumer Price Index - December 2011, January 19, 2012, Table 1A, CPI-U,  entry for "all items annual average 2011," available from the BLS web site (http://stats.bls.gov/cpi/).

Inflation assumptions:  Inflation conversion factors for 2012 and later years assume 1.95% in 2012, 1.70% in 2013, 1.75% in 2014, 1.85% in 2015, 2.05% in 2016, 2.15% in 2017, and 2.20% each year 2018-2022.  As noted earlier, these are averages of OMB and CBO inflation estimates as of January-February 2012.

Cautions:  These use CPI year to year average data rather than December to December.  In 2011, the December 2010 to December 2011 inflation was 3.0 percent while the year-to-year average inflation was 3.2 percent.

Note also that these are calendar year CPI data.  In the tables that use these data to calculate inflation-adjusted budget data, the difference between calendar year and federal budget year (October 1 to September 30 starting 1976, July 1 to June 30 in earlier years) will slightly affect the results.  However, because these slight offsets are the same for all years, the effects probably are minimal.

However, these differences suggest that inflation-adjusted budget and economic data from other sources (for example, the Bureau of Economic Analysis) will not match these data directly.