$100 in 1970 is worth $234 in 1981,
because prices increased 134.3% over that period, an average of
8.05% a year.
$100 in 1970 has
the same buying power as
$234
in 1981
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
134.3%
Average inflation rate
8.05% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$234
Price difference ($100 base)
$134
CPI in 1970
38.8
CPI in 1981
90.9
Inflation in 1970
5.72%
Inflation in 1981
10.32%
$100 in 1970 → 1981
$234
$100 in 1981 → 1970
$42.68
What happened to prices between 1970 and 1981
Between 1970 and 1981, the Consumer Price Index went from 38.8 to 90.9.
Cumulatively, prices increased 134.3%, which works out to an average of
8.05% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1970 bought what
$0.43 buys in 1981: the 1970 dollar
lost 57.3% of its purchasing power over
these 11 years.
Consumer prices rose 5.7% in 1970, up from 1969’s 5.5%, extending a
run of faster price growth that stretched back to the mid-1960s, even as a
recession that began in December 1969 pushed unemployment toward 6%. Prices
and joblessness rising together confounded the era’s economic thinking, which
held that policymakers could trade a little more inflation for a little less
unemployment; 1970 was an early sign that trade-off was breaking down, a
pattern that would harden into stagflation later in the decade. Washington
restructured how it delivered mail that year: after postal workers staged the
first strike ever by federal employees that March, Congress passed the Postal
Reorganization Act in August, replacing the cabinet-level Post Office
Department with the independent U.S. Postal Service. Environmental policy
also took shape in 1970. An estimated 20 million Americans marked the first
Earth Day on April 22, and the Environmental Protection Agency opened that
December to enforce the Clean Air Act and the pollution rules that followed.
The Vietnam War kept dividing the country: on May 4, National Guard troops
fired on antiwar demonstrators at Kent State University in Ohio, killing four
students and setting off strikes on hundreds of campuses. A median household
earned $8,734 that year, a gallon of gas averaged 36 cents, and a first-class
stamp cost 6 cents, the rate it had held since 1968. Prices stood 291.9%
above their 1913 level by the end of 1970, a milestone that
would look almost mild against the decade still to come.
Every 1970 amount converts to 1981 at the same ratio, 2.34: $1,000 becomes
$2,343, and $10,000 becomes $23,428.
Amount in 1970
Value in 1981
$1.00
$2.34
$5.00
$11.71
$10.00
$23.43
$20.00
$46.86
$50.00
$117
$100
$234
$500
$1,171
$1,000
$2,343
$5,000
$11,714
$10,000
$23,428
$100,000
$234,278
$1,000,000
$2,342,784
Inflation by spending category, 1970–1981
Between 1970 and 1981, energy rose the most, up 283.1%, while apparel rose the least, up 61.0%, against 134.3% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1970
spending costs in 1981, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1970 →
All items (CPI-U)
8.05%
$234
Energy
12.99%
$383
Transportation
8.63%
$249
Housing
8.62%
$248
Medical care
8.44%
$244
Food
8.23%
$239
Core (all items less food & energy)
7.37%
$219
Apparel
4.42%
$161
Not shown because the BLS began these indexes after 1970: recreation (1993–), education & communication (1993–).
Decade by decade: 1970 to 1981
Prices climbed fastest in the 1980s, averaging 10.32% a year, and slowest in the 1970s (7.82% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1970–1981 change:
Years
Avg. yearly inflation
Price change
$100 from 1970, at end
1970–1980
7.82%
112.4%
$212
1980–1981
10.32%
10.3%
$234
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1970
$100 from 1970 had already become $139 by
1975, on its way to $234 in 1981; each row shows the CPI, that
year's inflation rate, and the running value.
Within the span, inflation peaked at 13.5% in 1980, and the smallest rise was 3.2% in 1972.
In 1981, prices rose 10.3% and $100 from 1970 had the buying
power of $234; the year's average CPI of 90.9 is the level
behind every 1981 figure on this page.
1981 was the year the inflation fever finally broke, at an extraordinary price.
Consumer prices rose 10.3%, the second year of back-to-back double-digit
inflation and the last time the U.S. would see one. To end it, Paul Volcker’s
Federal Reserve drove its policy rate above 19% and let borrowing costs go
where they may: a 30-year mortgage cost more than 18% by autumn, car loans and
business credit froze, and homebuilders mailed the Fed two-by-fours in protest.
The squeeze tipped the economy into recession in July, the deep 1981–82
downturn that would push unemployment past 10%. But it worked. Inflation fell
by nearly half within a year and to under 4% by 1983, the disinflation that
defined the following two decades. Even the price of mailing a letter told the
year’s story: postage went up twice in eight months.
MLA: “Inflation from 1970 to 1981: $100 is worth $234 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1970-to-1981/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1970 to 1981. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1970-to-1981/