A Guide to Using MeasuringWorth
A collection of calculators to help answer questions of Comparative Relative Value,
Comparative Growth, and other interesting questions.
Also a source of historical data sets created for this site.
This is a guide to how to decide which calculator is best for you.
Present worth of a past amount. If you are asking what a monetary value in the past is worth today, we have calculators to give you answers. Many websites and other places will give you one answer in terms of a consumer price index. This can be misleading, since any transaction is valued in different ways by different people and under different contexts. So when making comparisons over time, these alternative ways of understanding value must be taken into account. At present, we have calculators that give you six answers for the United States (from 1774 on), five for the United Kingdom (from 1831 on), five for Japan (for 1879 on), and three for China (from 1952 on). At present, we have calculators that give you six answers for the United States (from 1774 on), five for the United Kingdom (from 1831 on), five for Japan (from 1879 on), and three for China (from 1952 on). These dates are determined by the limits of available data. For a guide to how to choose which answer is the best for your question, go to the Choosing the Best Indicator to Measure Relative Worth.
Comparing the growth rates of economic variables over different periods and different length of time. The growth over time of most variables, economic or otherwise, is usually measured as a percent increase (or decrease). To compare growth rates over different times in history and for different durations, the concept of annualized growth rate is used. The growth calculator here makes these comparisons for 23 annual economic and demographic series as far back as the thirteenth century.
The year-to-year inflation rate in the United States (1775 on) and the United Kingdom (1265 on). This inflation rates calculator gives you the year-to-year inflation rate for all the years in the range you choose and the annualized growth rate for the whole period.
How much would your saving grow in the past, depending on what it is invested in. One's saving accumulates over time at different rates depending on where it is invested. Saving accounts at banks are very safe; however, they pay a low rate of return compared to the stock market. Bonds can pay more, but sometimes require investors to keep their money tied up for extended periods. Stocks are usually the most risky and for many periods have given their owners high returns; however, they can go through long periods of no appreciation, such as from 1965 to 1982 in the United States. The saving calculator can tell you how your savings would have grown in the past depending on which type of asset you chose.
What a historic price in British Pounds in Worth in US dollars today (and vice versa)? If you are asking for the present worth of a monetary value in the past that is valued in a currency that is different from your own, the problem becomes more complicated. Instead of dealing with only the changing value of the item in your currency, you must also deal with the changing value in the other country? currency and the changing exchange rate between the two. There are three variables instead of one. The conversion calculator uses the CPI and GDP deflator in both the United States and the United Kingdom and gives a range of answers that depend on which year? exchange rate was used.
Comparing the growth rates of daily stock indexes over different periods and different length of time. The stock growth calculator can calculate the growth rate of the DJIA, S&P500 and NASDAQ in the United States between any two days from when each index began to the present. The answer is the annualized growth rate between the two days compounded daily.
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