$100 in 1913 is worth $409 in 1971,
because prices increased 309.1% over that period, an average of
2.46% a year.
$100 in 1913 has
the same buying power as
$409
in 1971
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
309.1%
Average inflation rate
2.46% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$409
Price difference ($100 base)
$309
CPI in 1913
9.9
CPI in 1971
40.5
Inflation in 1913
n/a
Inflation in 1971
4.38%
$100 in 1913 → 1971
$409
$100 in 1971 → 1913
$24.44
What happened to prices between 1913 and 1971
Between 1913 and 1971, the Consumer Price Index went from 9.9 to 40.5.
Cumulatively, prices increased 309.1%, which works out to an average of
2.46% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1913 bought what
$0.24 buys in 1971: the 1913 dollar
lost 75.6% of its purchasing power over
these 58 years.
1913 is where this site’s price history begins, because it’s where the Bureau of Labor
Statistics’ own consumer price data begins. The CPI wasn’t published in real time back then;
the BLS built the earliest index retroactively from retail price records collected starting
in 1913, which makes every dollar figure on this site ultimately anchored to that year’s
prices. It was also the year the machinery of modern federal economic policy was built. The
16th Amendment, ratified in February, cleared the constitutional path for a federal income
tax, and the Revenue Act that followed in October imposed a top rate of just 7% on income
above $500,000, a narrow tax that would later be reshaped into the broad-based system that
funds the government today. In December, Congress passed the Federal Reserve Act, creating
the central bank that would eventually take on fighting inflation as one of its core jobs,
including the 19%-plus interest rates it deployed against the 1970s and early 1980s
price surge. Consumer life in 1913 was correspondingly simple by later
standards: a first-class stamp cost 2 cents, a price that held from 1885 all the way to
1917, and the Ford Motor Company introduced the moving assembly line at its Highland Park
plant that year, a manufacturing breakthrough that would spend the next decade driving down
the cost of a car faster than prices elsewhere were rising.
Every 1913 amount converts to 1971 at the same ratio, 4.09: $1,000 becomes
$4,091, and $10,000 becomes $40,909.
Amount in 1913
Value in 1971
$1.00
$4.09
$5.00
$20.45
$10.00
$40.91
$20.00
$81.82
$50.00
$205
$100
$409
$500
$2,045
$1,000
$4,091
$5,000
$20,455
$10,000
$40,909
$100,000
$409,091
$1,000,000
$4,090,909
Inflation by spending category, 1913–1971
The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1913
spending costs in 1971, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1913 →
All items (CPI-U)
2.46%
$409
Food
2.44%
$404
Not shown because the BLS began these indexes after 1913: core (all items less food & energy) (1957–), energy (1957–), housing (1967–), medical care (1935–), apparel (1914–), transportation (1935–), recreation (1993–), education & communication (1993–).
Decade by decade: 1913 to 1971
Prices climbed fastest in the 1910s, averaging 10.57% a year, and fell in the 1920s (1.8% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1913–1971 change:
Years
Avg. yearly inflation
Price change
$100 from 1913, at end
1913–1920
10.57%
102.0%
$202
1920–1930
-1.79%
-16.5%
$169
1930–1940
-1.75%
-16.2%
$141
1940–1950
5.58%
72.1%
$243
1950–1960
2.08%
22.8%
$299
1960–1970
2.74%
31.1%
$392
1970–1971
4.38%
4.4%
$409
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1913
$100 from 1913 had already become $148 by
1941, on its way to $409 in 1971; each row shows the CPI, that
year's inflation rate, and the running value.
Within the span, inflation peaked at 18.0% in 1918, and prices fell 10.5% in 1921, the deepest deflation of the period.
Long periods are sampled every 2 years; the calculator above covers any pair of years.
The destination year: 1971
In 1971, prices rose 4.4% and $100 from 1913 had the buying
power of $409; the year's average CPI of 40.5 is the level
behind every 1971 figure on this page.
Consumer prices rose 4.4% in 1971, down from 1970’s 5.7% as
the recession that started in December 1969 finally cooled demand. The bigger
economic story came that August 15, when President Nixon closed the “gold
window” that let foreign governments exchange dollars for gold, ending the
Bretton Woods system that had anchored the dollar since World War II. The
same address announced a 90-day freeze on wages and prices, the first
peacetime controls the country had seen, an attempt to break inflationary
expectations without the slower grind of tighter money. The “Nixon Shock,” as
it came to be known, let the dollar float against other currencies for the
first time and set the stage for a wage-and-price-control regime that would
run in various forms into 1973. Politically, the country lowered its voting
age that year: the 26th Amendment, ratified July 1, extended the vote to
18-year-olds, capping a campaign built on the argument that men old enough to
be drafted to Vietnam were old enough to vote for the people who sent them.
The Postal Service, independent since 1970’s reorganization, raised
first-class postage from 6 to 8 cents that May. A median household earned
$9,028 in 1971, up from $8,734 the year before, while gas held near 36 cents
a gallon and a new home sold for a median $25,200. Consumer prices stood
309.1% above their 1913 level by year’s end, still years away
from the double-digit inflation the controls were meant to prevent.
MLA: “Inflation from 1913 to 1971: $100 is worth $409 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1913-to-1971/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1913 to 1971. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1913-to-1971/