$100 in 1934 is worth $302 in 1971,
because prices increased 202.2% over that period, an average of
3.03% a year.
$100 in 1934 has
the same buying power as
$302
in 1971
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
202.2%
Average inflation rate
3.03% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$302
Price difference ($100 base)
$202
CPI in 1934
13.4
CPI in 1971
40.5
Inflation in 1934
3.08%
Inflation in 1971
4.38%
$100 in 1934 → 1971
$302
$100 in 1971 → 1934
$33.09
What happened to prices between 1934 and 1971
Between 1934 and 1971, the Consumer Price Index went from 13.4 to 40.5.
Cumulatively, prices increased 202.2%, which works out to an average of
3.03% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1934 bought what
$0.33 buys in 1971: the 1934 dollar
lost 66.9% of its purchasing power over
these 37 years.
Consumer prices rose 3.1% in 1934, the first annual increase since 1926;
every year from 1927 through 1933 had been flat or falling,
so the turn marked a real break after eight years without a single gain.
Currency policy did some of the work. The Gold Reserve Act, signed January
30, formally devalued the dollar by raising the official price of gold from
$20.67 to $35 an ounce, part of the administration’s deliberate effort to
reflate prices after four straight years of deflation. Financial regulation
tightened at the same time: the Securities Exchange Act of June 6 created
the Securities and Exchange Commission to police stock exchanges and enforce
disclosure rules, a direct response to the speculation blamed for the 1929
crash. The recovery was fragile and unevenly felt, especially on the Great
Plains, where drought had turned overplowed farmland to dust. Over May 9-11,
high winds lifted an estimated 350 million tons of topsoil into the air,
darkening skies as far away as Washington and New York and giving city
readers who had never seen a wheat field a first glimpse of the disaster
building in Kansas, Oklahoma, and Texas. Consumer prices stood 35.4% above
their 1913 level, still well below the 1929 peak but rising
for the first time since the Depression began. First-class postage held at
3 cents.
Every 1934 amount converts to 1971 at the same ratio, 3.02: $1,000 becomes
$3,022, and $10,000 becomes $30,224.
Amount in 1934
Value in 1971
$1.00
$3.02
$5.00
$15.11
$10.00
$30.22
$20.00
$60.45
$50.00
$151
$100
$302
$500
$1,511
$1,000
$3,022
$5,000
$15,112
$10,000
$30,224
$100,000
$302,239
$1,000,000
$3,022,388
Inflation by spending category, 1934–1971
Between 1934 and 1971, food rose the most, up 248.3%, while apparel rose the least, up 196.6%, against 202.2% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1934
spending costs in 1971, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1934 →
All items (CPI-U)
3.03%
$302
Food
3.43%
$348
Apparel
2.98%
$297
Not shown because the BLS began these indexes after 1934: core (all items less food & energy) (1957–), energy (1957–), housing (1967–), medical care (1935–), transportation (1935–), recreation (1993–), education & communication (1993–).
Decade by decade: 1934 to 1971
Prices climbed fastest in the 1940s, averaging 5.58% a year, and slowest in the 1930s (0.73% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1934–1971 change:
Years
Avg. yearly inflation
Price change
$100 from 1934, at end
1934–1940
0.73%
4.5%
$104
1940–1950
5.58%
72.1%
$180
1950–1960
2.08%
22.8%
$221
1960–1970
2.74%
31.1%
$290
1970–1971
4.38%
4.4%
$302
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1934
$100 from 1934 had already become $198 by
1952, on its way to $302 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 1934 had the buying
power of $302; 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 1934 to 1971: $100 is worth $302 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1934-to-1971/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1934 to 1971. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1934-to-1971/