$100 in 1933 is worth $312 in 1971,
because prices increased 211.5% over that period, an average of
3.04% a year.
$100 in 1933 has
the same buying power as
$312
in 1971
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
211.5%
Average inflation rate
3.04% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$312
Price difference ($100 base)
$212
CPI in 1933
13
CPI in 1971
40.5
Inflation in 1933
-5.11%
Inflation in 1971
4.38%
$100 in 1933 → 1971
$312
$100 in 1971 → 1933
$32.10
What happened to prices between 1933 and 1971
Between 1933 and 1971, the Consumer Price Index went from 13 to 40.5.
Cumulatively, prices increased 211.5%, which works out to an average of
3.04% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1933 bought what
$0.32 buys in 1971: the 1933 dollar
lost 67.9% of its purchasing power over
these 38 years.
Consumer prices fell 5.1% in 1933, a smaller decline than 1932’s
but enough to complete a four-year slide of 24.0% from the 1929
peak. The National Bureau of Economic Research dates the trough of that
contraction to March 1933, closing out the longest downturn in its
chronology, one that had run 43 months since August 1929. The bottom
arrived alongside a change in government: Franklin D. Roosevelt was
inaugurated March 4 and, within 48 hours, ordered every bank in the country
closed to halt a fresh round of runs. Congress passed the Emergency Banking
Act on March 9, letting solvent banks reopen under federal supervision, and
the panic that had been building for months broke almost immediately. The
administration moved on the currency next: Executive Order 6102, issued
April 5, required Americans to turn in most gold coin, bullion, and
certificates to the Federal Reserve, taking the country off the domestic
gold standard (formal devaluation of the dollar followed the next January).
Congress capped the year’s banking overhaul in June with the Banking Act of
1933, commonly called Glass-Steagall, which created the Federal Deposit
Insurance Corporation and separated commercial banking from investment
banking. Even after four straight years of falling prices, the CPI still
stood 31.3% above its 1913 level. First-class postage held at
3 cents.
Every 1933 amount converts to 1971 at the same ratio, 3.12: $1,000 becomes
$3,115, and $10,000 becomes $31,154.
Amount in 1933
Value in 1971
$1.00
$3.12
$5.00
$15.58
$10.00
$31.15
$20.00
$62.31
$50.00
$156
$100
$312
$500
$1,558
$1,000
$3,115
$5,000
$15,577
$10,000
$31,154
$100,000
$311,538
$1,000,000
$3,115,385
Inflation by spending category, 1933–1971
Between 1933 and 1971, food rose the most, up 288.5%, while apparel rose the least, up 225.0%, against 211.5% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1933
spending costs in 1971, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1933 →
All items (CPI-U)
3.04%
$312
Food
3.64%
$388
Apparel
3.15%
$325
Not shown because the BLS began these indexes after 1933: core (all items less food & energy) (1957–), energy (1957–), housing (1967–), medical care (1935–), transportation (1935–), recreation (1993–), education & communication (1993–).
Decade by decade: 1933 to 1971
Prices climbed fastest in the 1940s, averaging 5.58% a year, and slowest in the 1930s (1.06% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1933–1971 change:
Years
Avg. yearly inflation
Price change
$100 from 1933, at end
1933–1940
1.06%
7.7%
$108
1940–1950
5.58%
72.1%
$185
1950–1960
2.08%
22.8%
$228
1960–1970
2.74%
31.1%
$298
1970–1971
4.38%
4.4%
$312
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1933
$100 from 1933 had already become $200 by
1951, on its way to $312 in 1971; each row shows the CPI, that
year's inflation rate, and the running value.
Within the span, inflation peaked at 14.4% in 1947, and prices fell 2.1% in 1938, 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 1933 had the buying
power of $312; 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 1933 to 1971: $100 is worth $312 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1933-to-1971/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1933 to 1971. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1933-to-1971/