$100 in 1970 is worth $293 in 1987,
because prices increased 192.8% over that period, an average of
6.52% a year.
$100 in 1970 has
the same buying power as
$293
in 1987
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
192.8%
Average inflation rate
6.52% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$293
Price difference ($100 base)
$193
CPI in 1970
38.8
CPI in 1987
113.6
Inflation in 1970
5.72%
Inflation in 1987
3.65%
$100 in 1970 → 1987
$293
$100 in 1987 → 1970
$34.15
What happened to prices between 1970 and 1987
Between 1970 and 1987, the Consumer Price Index went from 38.8 to 113.6.
Cumulatively, prices increased 192.8%, which works out to an average of
6.52% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1970 bought what
$0.34 buys in 1987: the 1970 dollar
lost 65.8% of its purchasing power over
these 17 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 1987 at the same ratio, 2.93: $1,000 becomes
$2,928, and $10,000 becomes $29,278.
Amount in 1970
Value in 1987
$1.00
$2.93
$5.00
$14.64
$10.00
$29.28
$20.00
$58.56
$50.00
$146
$100
$293
$500
$1,464
$1,000
$2,928
$5,000
$14,639
$10,000
$29,278
$100,000
$292,784
$1,000,000
$2,927,835
Inflation by spending category, 1970–1987
Between 1970 and 1987, medical care rose the most, up 282.6%, while apparel rose the least, up 86.8%, against 192.8% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1970
spending costs in 1987, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1970 →
All items (CPI-U)
6.52%
$293
Medical care
8.21%
$383
Energy
7.60%
$347
Housing
6.96%
$314
Core (all items less food & energy)
6.46%
$290
Food
6.45%
$290
Transportation
6.27%
$281
Apparel
3.74%
$187
Not shown because the BLS began these indexes after 1970: recreation (1993–), education & communication (1993–).
Decade by decade: 1970 to 1987
Prices climbed fastest in the 1970s, averaging 7.82% a year, and slowest in the 1980s (4.69% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1970–1987 change:
Years
Avg. yearly inflation
Price change
$100 from 1970, at end
1970–1980
7.82%
112.4%
$212
1980–1987
4.69%
37.9%
$293
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1970
$100 from 1970 had already become $168 by
1978, on its way to $293 in 1987; 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 1.9% in 1986.
In 1987, prices rose 3.6% and $100 from 1970 had the buying
power of $293; the year's average CPI of 113.6 is the level
behind every 1987 figure on this page.
1987 tested whether the disinflation of the 1980s could survive its first
real shock. Paul Volcker, who had run the Federal Reserve since 1979 and
driven inflation down from 13.5% to routine mid-single digits, handed the
chairmanship to Alan Greenspan in August. Inflation for the year came in at
3.6%, edging up as the expansion entered its fifth year and a weaker
dollar, following 1985’s Plaza Accord, pushed up the price of imported
goods. Then, on October 19, the stock market delivered Greenspan’s first
crisis: the Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 22.6% in a single session,
still the largest one-day percentage drop in its history, as computer-driven
“portfolio insurance” trading amplified a global sell-off that had started
days earlier. The Fed responded within 24 hours, publicly pledging to
supply whatever liquidity the banking system needed, and the panic did not
spread to the broader economy. Growth continued and unemployment kept
falling through the rest of the year. It was an early demonstration of what
became known as the “Greenspan put,” a Fed willing to move fast and loosen
policy to contain financial shocks even while still watching inflation,
that shaped central banking for the next two decades.
MLA: “Inflation from 1970 to 1987: $100 is worth $293 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1970-to-1987/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1970 to 1987. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1970-to-1987/