inflation

Template documentation

This template defaults to calculating the inflation of Consumer Price Index values: staples, workers' rent, small service bills (doctor's costs, train tickets). For inflating capital expenses, government expenses, or the personal wealth and expenditure of the rich, the US-GDP or UK-GDP indexes should be used, which calculate inflation based on the gross domestic product (GDP) for the United States and United Kingdom, respectively.

Do not assume that using this template will mean that a calculated value is "current", "as of 2024", "as of 2023" or even necessarily "recent". Per MOS:REALTIME, statements made using this template should either specify an end_year, or rely on |fmt=eq or {{Inflation/year}} to automatically indicate the latest year this template provides an inflation calculation. Do not use {{CURRENTYEAR}}.

This template is used on approximately 22,000 pages and changes may be widely noticed. Test changes in the template's /sandbox or /testcases subpages, or in your own user subpage. Consider discussing changes on the talk page before implementing them.

This template should not be substituted.

This template calculates inflation based on several inflation index data sets. The template uses an identification code for an inflation index (usually a country code), an original value, an original start_year and either a specific reference end_year or by default the latest currently available end year, and calculates the equivalent value from historical economic changes between the original and reference years. For example, this template calls the United States inflation table located in the sub-template Template:Inflation/US/dataset to perform the U.S. calculation.

Aside from a convenient way to calculate values from different specified time periods, this template allows a regularly automatically updated calculation of value based on the most recent available inflation data. Whenever inflation tables are updated, potentially annually, all articles using this template have their displayed values updated accordingly.

For US currency, a simplified wrapper template exists, {{USDCY}}, which turns e.g. "{{USDCY|6.66|1899}}" into "($244.00 in 2023)".

Usage

{{Inflation|index|value|start_year}} {{Inflation|index|value|start_year|end_year}} {{Inflation|index|value|start_year|r=decimals|fmt=c}} {{Inflation|index|value|start_year|r=decimals|fmt=eq}} {{Inflation|index|value|start_year|r=decimals|fmt=eq|cursign=X}}

The supported countries are listed below, with their index and available data periods:

`index`	Country	`start_year` minimum	`end_year` maximum
AR	Argentina	1864	2020
AT	Austria	1440	2018
AU	Australia	1850	2022
AU-road	Australia [...?]	1998	2018
BD	Bangladesh	1986	2022
BE	Belgium	1399	2020
BR	Brazil	1820	2020
CA	Canada	1688	2021
CH	Switzerland	1501	2021
CL	Chile	1661	2020
CN	China	961	2019
DE	Germany^{[dead link]}	1500	2021
DK	Denmark	1502	2022
EG	Egypt	1915	2018
ES	Spain	1276	2022
EU	Euro (European Union)	1996	2023
FI	Finland	1860	2023
FR	France	1262	2022
GR	Greece	1833	2007
HK	Hong Kong	1947	2020
ID	Indonesia	1820	2007
IL	Israel	1951	2021
IN	India	1595	2023
IR	Iran	1315	1398
IS	Iceland	1849	2020
IT	Italy	1326	2020
JP	Japan	1868	2019
MX	Mexico	1525	2007
NL	Netherlands	1450	2016
NO	Norway	1492	2017
NZ	New Zealand	1862	2021
PE	Peru	1564	2017
PH	Philippines	1899	2021
PK	Pakistan	1960	2021
PL	Poland	1409	2021
PT	Portugal	1672	2007
RU	Russia	1548	2023
SE	Sweden	1290	2009
SG	Singapore	1961	2022
TH	Thailand	1820	2020
TR	Turkey	1585	2021
TW	Taiwan	1903	2021
UK	United Kingdom	1209	2021
UK-GDP	United Kingdom GDP deflator	1700	2019
US	United States	1634	2023
US-GDP	United States GDP deflator	1790	2023
ZAR	South Africa	1652	2018
KRW	South Korea	1906	2017

Parameters

|index= (parameter 1), required, an index code for one of several available inflation indexes.
|value= (parameter 2), required, original price or value from which to base the inflation calculation on. Will ignore any commas, but must not have a currency symbol.
|start_year= (parameter 3), required, original year from which to base the inflation calculation on. Must be a year available in the chosen inflation index. As an exception to this, if the current year is specified and no end_year is specified, the template will output value unchanged, as it can be assumed an inflation of zero.
|end_year= (parameter 4), optional, reference year for which to calculate inflation. Must be higher (later) than start_year, but not higher than the highest (most recent) year available in the chosen inflation index, and will default to the highest (most recent) available year if omitted.
|r=digit sets the digits to which the value must be rounded. A negative value indicates rounding to an upper significant digit, and a positive value indicates a fractional digit including trailing zeros. Defaults to 0, i.e., without cents.
|fmt=c will insert thousands separator commas into the calculated value.
|fmt=eq will show an equivalent-to phrase, in the format, "equivalent to cursignend_value in end_year". Uses thousands separator commas.
- |cursign= will set the currency symbol to be shown. Only functions when |fmt=eq is used. Can use advanced symbol formats, but can only precede the calculated value. Default is $.
- |orig=yes will display the original value too, with the currency sign provided.

Examples

Y {{Inflation|KRW|100|2000}} → 155
Y {{Inflation|DE|100|2000}} → 70
Y {{Inflation|US|595|1982}} → 1879
Y {{Inflation|US|595|1982|fmt=eq}} → equivalent to $1,879 in 2023
Y {{Inflation|US|800|1942|fmt=eq|r=-3}} → equivalent to $15,000 in 2023
Y {{Inflation|US|100|2010|2012|fmt=eq|r=2}} → equivalent to $105.28 in 2012
Y US$595 ({{Inflation|US|595|1982|fmt=eq}}) → US$595 (equivalent to $1,879 in 2023)
Y US$595 ({{Inflation|US|595|1982|fmt=eq|cursign=[[United States dollar|US$]]}}) → US$595 (equivalent to US$1,879 in 2023)
Y $21 million (equivalent to ${{Inflation|US|21|2005|r=2}} million in {{Inflation/year|US}}) → $21 million (equivalent to $32.76 million in 2023)
Y {{Inflation|UK|1|1209|fmt=eq|cursign=£}} → equivalent to £1,499 in 2021
Y {{Inflation|AU|100|2024|fmt=eq}} → equivalent to $100 in 2024
Y ${{Inflation|US|100|2024}} in {{Inflation/year|US}} → $100 in 2023
Y {{Inflation|UK|100|1982|fmt=eq|orig=yes|cursign=£}} → £100 (equivalent to £375 in 2021)

It is possible to use the template in incorrect ways without producing error messages. Please read the warnings and appropriate uses of this template at the beginning of the template description.

N {{Inflation|UK|10|1971|fmt=eq}} → equivalent to $150 in 2021 (Omitting the |cursign= parameter will show the $ symbol by default, which is the wrong currency symbol for British currency)
Y {{Inflation|UK|10|1971|fmt=eq|cursign=£}} → equivalent to £150 in 2021
N $595 (${{Inflation|US|595|1982|fmt=c}} today) → $595 ($1,879 today) (Misleading time reference)
N $595 (${{Inflation|US|595|1982|fmt=c}} in {{CURRENTYEAR}}) → $595 ($1,879 in 2024) (Misleading time reference)
N $100 (${{Inflation|US|595|1982|fmt=c}} adjusted for inflation) → $100 ($1,879 adjusted for inflation) (Misleading time reference)
Y $595 ({{Inflation|US|595|1982|fmt=eq}}) → $595 (equivalent to $1,879 in 2023)
Y $595 (equivalent to ${{Inflation|US|595|1982|fmt=c}} in {{Inflation/year|US}}) → $595 (equivalent to $1,879 in 2023)
N Jane Doe amassed a fortune of $1 billion in 1975, making her worth ${{Inflation|US|1|1975|fmt=c}} billion in {{Inflation/year|US}}. → Jane Doe amassed a fortune of $1 billion in 1975, making her worth $6 billion in 2023. (CPI is not for personal wealth of the wealthy – use GDP deflator instead)
N Jane Doe amassed a fortune of $1 billion in 1975, equivalent to ${{Inflation|US|1|1975|fmt=c}} billion in {{Inflation/year|US}}. → Jane Doe amassed a fortune of $1 billion in 1975, equivalent to $6 billion in 2023. (CPI is not for personal wealth of the wealthy – use GDP deflator instead)
Y Jane Doe amassed a fortune of $1 billion in 1975, equivalent to ${{Inflation|US-GDP|1|1975|fmt=c}} billion in {{Inflation/year|US-GDP}}. → Jane Doe amassed a fortune of $1 billion in 1975, equivalent to $4 billion in 2023

Entering invalid parameters or omitting required parameters will result in an error message and categorization into Category:Pages with errors in inflation template.

N {{Inflation}} →
N {{Inflation|abc}} →
N {{Inflation|AU}} →
N {{Inflation|AU|100}} →
N {{Inflation|abc|€100|1980}} →
N {{Inflation|DE|€100|1980}} →
N {{Inflation|DE|€100|zzzz|zzzz|r=zzzz}} →
N {{Inflation|AU|100|1200|2025}} →
N {{Inflation|AU|100|2005|2004}} → (see the Limitations section below)
N {{Inflation|AU|100|2005|2025|fmt=eq}} →
N {{Inflation|AU|100|2024|2025|fmt=eq}} →
N {{Inflation|AU|100|2024|1905|fmt=eq}} →
N {{Inflation|AU|100|2025|fmt=eq}} →

Tips & tricks

Currency conversion

Many datasets are currency agnostic, which means they don't convert between different currencies (or for currency redenominations). Thus, if you wanted to know today's equivalent value of 1,000.00 Austrian schillings in 1960, entering {{Inflation|AT|1000|1960|r=2}} would provide a result (6550.14) still in schillings, not in euros.

Consequently, if you need a result in a currency other than the one in which the original value is stated, for now you must do the conversion manually, as in the following example which uses the defined conversion rate of 13.7603 schillings to one Euro:

Y {{#expr:({{Inflation|AT|1000|1960|r=2}} / 13.7603) round 2}} → 476.02

Instead of manually inputting a conversion for the Euro from a national currency, it is possible to divide by {{FixedEuroRate}} instead; for conversion to USD, use {{International dollars}}.

Some datasets are not currency agnostic; check the sources for each dataset to determine this.

ToDo A currency conversion template to ease these conversion tasks is planned. This section will be updated accordingly once it's developed.

Non-decimal inputs

The template does not accept non-decimal inputs such as £sd; these must be decimalized beforehand. For example, if you wanted to know the value of three shillings and sixpence (3s 6d) Sterling in 1950 in 2018, you must convert to the appropriate decimal value (in this case £0.175) for use in the template:

Y {{Inflation|GBP|0.175|1950|2018}} → 6

For £sd specifically {{Pounds, shillings, and pence}} can be used to convert to decimal. For other non-decimal currencies, such as the old Indian rupee, templates can be made for decimalization upon request.

Y {{Inflation|GBP|{{Pounds, shillings, and pence|s=3|d=6}}|1950|2018|r=0|fmt=eq|cursign=£}} → equivalent to £6 in 2018

Y {{Inflation|UK|{{Pounds, shillings, and pence|s=10|d=6}}|1865|fmt=eq|cursign=£}} → equivalent to £54 in 2021

Rounding

By default the values are calculated to the unit, as for all but very low values cents are undesirable. You can specify rounding with the |r= parameter which determines the number of decimals. To obtain cents use |r=2, but other values can be used, including negative ones: |r=-3, for example, will round to the nearest thousand, |r=-6 to the nearest million, and so on. It is advisable to avoid false precision; even if the start value is known to be exact, the template's result will not be because the inflation index tables are rarely accurate to more than about 1%, and a granularity of whole years is used.

Very large results

Very large results are expressed in scientific notation ("1.2E+14" instead of "120000000000000") which is normally not desirable. A workaround is to express the value to be inflated with fewer digits, adding a multiplier text such as "trillion" after the result, using the "Show preview" button as many times as needed, changing parameters until the best result is found:

Y ${{Inflation|US-GDP|1000000000000|1900|r=-11|fmt=c}} → $30,100,000,000,000
N ${{Inflation|US-GDP|10000000000000|1900|r=-12|fmt=c}} → $301,000,000,000,000
N ${{Inflation|US-GDP|10000000000|1900|r=-9|fmt=c}} thousand → $301,000,000,000 thousand
Y ${{Inflation|US-GDP|10000000|1900|r=-6|fmt=c}} million → $301,000,000 million
Y ${{Inflation|US-GDP|10000|1900|r=-3|fmt=c}} billion → $301,000 billion
Y ${{Inflation|US-GDP|10|1900|fmt=c}} trillion → $301 trillion

The following section provides an automated way of avoiding this trial and error scenario.

Format price

{{Format price}} is a template specifically designed to display price values, both big and small, in a readable way. For example, instead of showing the whole of a huge number such as "953,783,409,856.12", it would show it as "954 billion", while small numbers have their cents part appearing as expected, "1234.5" being properly shown as "1,235".

Y ${{Format price|{{Inflation|US-GDP|10000000000000|1900}}}} → $301 trillion
Y ${{Format price|{{Inflation|US-GDP|1000000|1990}}}} → $2.06 million
Y DM {{Format price|{{Inflation|DE|1000000|1957|1978}}}} → DM 2.01 million
Y £{{Format price|{{Inflation|UK-GDP|1000|1323}}}} → £699,508

Citing inflation data sources

It's a good practice to provide a valid reference for the prices calculated with this template in articles where it's used. The template {{Inflation/fn}} was developed to ease this task. It accepts as its single parameter the same country codes used here, and will generate one or more appropriate footnotes. Typically, this is how a piece of text using it looks like:

In 1985 a unit cost on average $1,040. This is {{Inflation|US|1040|1985|fmt=eq}}.{{Inflation/fn|US}}

Resulting in this converted code (notice the footnote link at the end):

In 1985 a unit cost on average $1,040. This is equivalent to $2,946 in 2023.

The footnote thus generated appears whenever {{reflist}} or is used in an article, usually in its "References" section. See below for the live example in this document's own References section, or click the above generated footnote to jump to it.

Limitations

Currently it isn't possible to "de-inflate" a value to what it would have been in a previous year. If you need this functionality, please request it at the talk page. Adding it won't be difficult, but there's no point in doing so before someone actually needs it.
Substitution isn't supported at all. Trying to {{subst:Inflation|...}} would only result in a long sequence of embedded parser code without any direct benefit. If you need to obtain an inflated price only once, please use the special ExpandTemplates page then copy the result and paste it at the desired location.

Developer documentation

An inflation series represents templates in the following categories:

Template:Inflation/index
Template:Inflation/index/dataset
Template:Inflation/index/startyear
Template:Inflation/doc/index (Which is then displayed at Inflation/name/dataset as the documentation, and needs to refer to the original data source)

Modifications need to be made to:

Current subpages:

In this templatespace:

Template:

Inflation

Template talk:

Inflation

Useful sources

Historical Prices and Wages (HPW): Datafiles: Includes inflation 1800–2000, which has data for a very large number of countries, most dating back to the early 20th century and ending in 2007, and various other very long term datafiles.
Global Price and Income History Group: Partially duplicates the above sources, but has a lot of pre-1950s data on many parts of the world
Bank of International Settlements: Has long term data for more than 50 countries and is updated regularly.

TemplateData

This is the TemplateData for this template used by TemplateWizard, VisualEditor and other tools. See a monthly parameter usage report for Template:Inflation in articles based on its TemplateData.

TemplateData for Inflation

This template calculates inflation based on several inflation index data sets. Note that this template defaults to calculating the inflation of Consumer Price Index values: staples, workers' rent, small service bills (doctor's costs, train tickets). For inflating capital expenses, government expenses, or the personal wealth and expenditure of the rich, the US-GDP or UK-GDP indexes should be used, which calculate inflation based on the [[gross domestic product]] (GDP) for the [[United States]] and [[United Kingdom]], respectively.

Template parametersEdit template data
This template prefers inline formatting of parameters.
Parameter		Description	Type	Status
Index	`index` `1`	An index code for one of several available inflation indexes. One of AU, AU-road, BD, CA, DE, IN, JP, PH, PK, UK, UK-GDP, US, US-GDP, ZAR, and various others. Example US	String	required
Value	`value` `2`	Original price or value from which to base the inflation calculation on. Will ignore any commas. Example 1000	Number	required
Start year	`start_year` `3`	Original year from which to base the inflation calculation on. Must be a year available in the chosen inflation index. As an exception to this, if the current year is specified and no 'End year' is specified, the template will output value unchanged, as it can be assumed an inflation of zero. Example 1975	Number	required
End year	`end_year` `4`	Reference year for which to calculate inflation. Must be higher (later) than 'Start year', but not higher than the highest (most recent) year available in the chosen inflation index, and will default to the highest (most recent) available year if omitted. Example 2015	Number	optional
Number of digits	`r`	Sets the digits to which the value must be rounded. A negative value indicates rounding to an upper significant digit, and a positive value indicates a fractional digit including trailing zeros. Defaults to 0. Default 0 Example 1	Number	optional
Format	`fmt`	"c" will insert thousands separator commas into the calculated value. "eq" will show an equivalent-to phrase, in the format, "equivalent to (cursign)(end_value) in (end_year)". Uses thousands separator commas. Example eq	String	optional
Currency sign	`cursign`	Sets the currency symbol to be shown. Only functions when Format "eq" is used. Can use advanced symbol formats, but can only precede the calculated value. Default is $. Default $ Example €	String	optional

References