What are you converting?
£100 left in cash since January 1970 now buys what £4.27 bought then
UK figures are RPI, not CPI. RPI is the only single Office for National Statistics series that reaches back to 1947, and it runs roughly 0.8 percentage points a year above CPI, so a pound figure here will not line up exactly against a CPI-based figure for another country.
To buy today what £100 bought in January 1970, you would need £2,342.
Prices rose 2242% in total, an average of 5.74% a year.
Office for National Statistics, Retail Prices Index long run series. RPI, not CPI. It is the only single ONS series reaching 1947, and it runs roughly 0.8 percentage points above CPI. Covers June 1947 to July 2026. This tracks GBP's own domestic prices over time, not an exchange rate: switching currency changes which country's record you are reading, it does not convert between them. Download every currency as a spreadsheet, or as plain CSV, and check it yourself.
What £100 left in cash has been able to buy, year by year
What the same 100 can still buy at home, in 5 currencies, since January 1970
Each line starts at 100 and falls as prices at home rise, so the lower a line ends, the more purchasing power that currency has lost. Two rich countries can be a factor of 6 apart over the same span. EUR is not shown for this range: its price record only reaches back to 1996.
What the same 100 can still buy globally, in 5 currencies
The chart above tracks what 100 units can still buy of each currency's own basket at home; it cannot show a currency also losing or gaining value against the dollar. This one converts the same 100 units to dollars at the day's exchange rate, then deflates by US prices instead of each country's own: a lower line means more purchasing power lost, once both the exchange rate and US inflation have had their say. The US dollar has no exchange rate of its own to apply, so its line simply falls with US inflation since January 1971. EUR is not shown for this range: its dollar exchange rate only reaches back to 1999.
Starts later than asked. January 1970 was requested, but no currency has a dollar exchange rate before January 1971 - floating rates only began once Bretton Woods' fixed rates ended that year - so this chart begins there instead, later than the two above it.
Inflation by decade, every currency
Annualised, percent a year. Blank where the record does not reach.
| Decade | USD | GBP | EUR | CAD | AUD | JPY |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1950s (1950-1960) | 2.3% | 4.1% | 2.5% | 6.1% | ||
| 1960s (1960-1970) | 2.6% | 3.8% | 2.7% | 2.5% | ||
| 1970s (1970-1980) | 7.5% | 13.3% | 7.5% | 10.2% | 8.8% | |
| 1980s (1980-1990) | 5.0% | 6.8% | 6.3% | 8.2% | 2.3% | |
| 1990s (1990-2000) | 2.9% | 3.4% | 2.0% | 2.2% | 1.0% | |
| 2000s (2000-2010) | 2.5% | 2.7% | 2.0% | 2.1% | 3.2% | -0.3% |
| 2010s (2010-2020) | 1.8% | 2.9% | 1.3% | 1.7% | 2.1% | 0.6% |
| 2020s (2020-2026) | 3.9% | 5.8% | 3.8% | 3.4% | 3.8% | 2.0% |