$100 in 1951 is worth $156 in 1971,
because prices increased 55.8% over that period, an average of
2.24% a year.
$100 in 1951 has
the same buying power as
$156
in 1971
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
55.8%
Average inflation rate
2.24% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$156
Price difference ($100 base)
$55.77
CPI in 1951
26
CPI in 1971
40.5
Inflation in 1951
7.88%
Inflation in 1971
4.38%
$100 in 1951 → 1971
$156
$100 in 1971 → 1951
$64.20
What happened to prices between 1951 and 1971
Between 1951 and 1971, the Consumer Price Index went from 26 to 40.5.
Cumulatively, prices increased 55.8%, which works out to an average of
2.24% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1951 bought what
$0.64 buys in 1971: the 1951 dollar
lost 35.8% of its purchasing power over
these 20 years.
Consumer prices rose 7.9% in 1951, up sharply from 1950’s
1.3% and the fastest increase since 1947, as Korean War buying and a
defense spending surge hit an economy still adjusting to peacetime. Much
of the jump came early in the year, before the government stepped in: the
Office of Price Stabilization imposed a general ceiling on prices January
26, and the Wage Stabilization Board froze wages soon after, the broadest
peacetime controls since the war began that June. The year’s more lasting
change came in monetary policy. On March 4, the Treasury and the Federal
Reserve signed the Accord, ending the Fed’s wartime obligation to hold
down interest rates on government bonds and freeing the central bank to
fight inflation on its own terms for the first time since 1942, a shift
that would shape Fed independence for decades. Congress raised taxes that
October to help pay for the war: the Revenue Act of 1951, signed October
20, lifted individual and corporate income taxes along with a range of
excise taxes, the third increase in taxes since fighting began in Korea.
Consumer prices finished 1951 162.6% above their 1913
level. First-class postage held at 3 cents, and the minimum wage stayed at
75 cents an hour.
Every 1951 amount converts to 1971 at the same ratio, 1.56: $1,000 becomes
$1,558, and $10,000 becomes $15,577.
Amount in 1951
Value in 1971
$1.00
$1.56
$5.00
$7.79
$10.00
$15.58
$20.00
$31.15
$50.00
$77.88
$100
$156
$500
$779
$1,000
$1,558
$5,000
$7,788
$10,000
$15,577
$100,000
$155,769
$1,000,000
$1,557,692
Inflation by spending category, 1951–1971
Between 1951 and 1971, medical care rose the most, up 127.0%, while apparel rose the least, up 39.2%, against 55.8% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1951
spending costs in 1971, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1951 →
All items (CPI-U)
2.24%
$156
Medical care
4.19%
$227
Transportation
2.50%
$164
Food
1.81%
$143
Apparel
1.67%
$139
Not shown because the BLS began these indexes after 1951: core (all items less food & energy) (1957–), energy (1957–), housing (1967–), recreation (1993–), education & communication (1993–).
Decade by decade: 1951 to 1971
Prices climbed fastest in the 1970s, averaging 4.38% a year, and slowest in the 1950s (1.45% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1951–1971 change:
Years
Avg. yearly inflation
Price change
$100 from 1951, at end
1951–1960
1.45%
13.8%
$114
1960–1970
2.74%
31.1%
$149
1970–1971
4.38%
4.4%
$156
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1951
$100 from 1951 had already become $115 by
1961, on its way to $156 in 1971; each row shows the CPI, that
year's inflation rate, and the running value.
Within the span, inflation peaked at 5.7% in 1970, and prices fell 0.4% in 1955, the deepest deflation of the period.
In 1971, prices rose 4.4% and $100 from 1951 had the buying
power of $156; 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 1951 to 1971: $100 is worth $156 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1951-to-1971/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1951 to 1971. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1951-to-1971/