$100 in 1957 is worth $144 in 1971,
because prices increased 44.1% over that period, an average of
2.65% a year.
$100 in 1957 has
the same buying power as
$144
in 1971
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
44.1%
Average inflation rate
2.65% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$144
Price difference ($100 base)
$44.13
CPI in 1957
28.1
CPI in 1971
40.5
Inflation in 1957
3.31%
Inflation in 1971
4.38%
$100 in 1957 → 1971
$144
$100 in 1971 → 1957
$69.38
What happened to prices between 1957 and 1971
Between 1957 and 1971, the Consumer Price Index went from 28.1 to 40.5.
Cumulatively, prices increased 44.1%, which works out to an average of
2.65% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1957 bought what
$0.69 buys in 1971: the 1957 dollar
lost 30.6% of its purchasing power over
these 14 years.
Consumer prices rose 3.3% in 1957, up from 1956’s 1.5% and
the sharpest increase since the Korean War price surge of 1951. The jump
fed a growing debate among economists over “cost-push” inflation, prices
climbing from rising wages and material costs rather than excess demand,
a debate that would recur for the next quarter century. The Federal
Reserve tightened policy to fight it, and by August the tighter money
combined with falling business investment to tip the economy into a
recession, according to the National Bureau of Economic Research’s
dating. The Cold War took a technological turn that October, when the
Soviet Union launched Sputnik, the first artificial satellite, on the
4th, stunning the American public and setting off both the Space Race and
a surge in federal science and defense spending the following year. Civil
rights reached a crisis that September in Little Rock, Arkansas: after
Governor Orval Faubus used the National Guard to block nine Black
students from Central High School, Eisenhower federalized the Guard and
sent the 101st Airborne Division to enforce the Supreme Court’s
desegregation order. Consumer prices finished 1957 183.8% above their
1913 level. First-class postage held at 3 cents, and the
minimum wage stood at $1.00 an hour.
Every 1957 amount converts to 1971 at the same ratio, 1.44: $1,000 becomes
$1,441, and $10,000 becomes $14,413.
Amount in 1957
Value in 1971
$1.00
$1.44
$5.00
$7.21
$10.00
$14.41
$20.00
$28.83
$50.00
$72.06
$100
$144
$500
$721
$1,000
$1,441
$5,000
$7,206
$10,000
$14,413
$100,000
$144,128
$1,000,000
$1,441,281
Inflation by spending category, 1957–1971
Between 1957 and 1971, medical care rose the most, up 83.2%, while energy rose the least, up 23.3%, against 44.1% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1957
spending costs in 1971, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1957 →
All items (CPI-U)
2.65%
$144
Medical care
4.42%
$183
Core (all items less food & energy)
2.83%
$148
Transportation
2.57%
$143
Food
2.42%
$140
Apparel
2.29%
$137
Energy
1.50%
$123
Not shown because the BLS began these indexes after 1957: housing (1967–), recreation (1993–), education & communication (1993–).
Decade by decade: 1957 to 1971
Prices climbed fastest in the 1970s, averaging 4.38% a year, and slowest in the 1950s (1.75% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1957–1971 change:
Years
Avg. yearly inflation
Price change
$100 from 1957, at end
1957–1960
1.75%
5.3%
$105
1960–1970
2.74%
31.1%
$138
1970–1971
4.38%
4.4%
$144
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1957
$100 from 1957 had already become $110 by
1964, on its way to $144 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 the smallest rise was 0.7% in 1959.
In 1971, prices rose 4.4% and $100 from 1957 had the buying
power of $144; 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 1957 to 1971: $100 is worth $144 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1957-to-1971/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1957 to 1971. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1957-to-1971/