$100 in 1971 is worth $133 in 1975,
because prices increased 32.8% over that period, an average of
7.36% a year.
$100 in 1971 has
the same buying power as
$133
in 1975
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
32.8%
Average inflation rate
7.36% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$133
Price difference ($100 base)
$32.84
CPI in 1971
40.5
CPI in 1975
53.8
Inflation in 1971
4.38%
Inflation in 1975
9.13%
$100 in 1971 → 1975
$133
$100 in 1975 → 1971
$75.28
What happened to prices between 1971 and 1975
Between 1971 and 1975, the Consumer Price Index went from 40.5 to 53.8.
Cumulatively, prices increased 32.8%, which works out to an average of
7.36% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1971 bought what
$0.75 buys in 1975: the 1971 dollar
lost 24.7% of its purchasing power over
these 4 years.
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.
Every 1971 amount converts to 1975 at the same ratio, 1.33: $1,000 becomes
$1,328, and $10,000 becomes $13,284.
Amount in 1971
Value in 1975
$1.00
$1.33
$5.00
$6.64
$10.00
$13.28
$20.00
$26.57
$50.00
$66.42
$100
$133
$500
$664
$1,000
$1,328
$5,000
$6,642
$10,000
$13,284
$100,000
$132,840
$1,000,000
$1,328,395
Inflation by spending category, 1971–1975
Between 1971 and 1975, energy rose the most, up 58.9%, while apparel rose the least, up 18.7%, against 32.8% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1971
spending costs in 1975, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1971 →
All items (CPI-U)
7.36%
$133
Energy
12.27%
$159
Food
10.30%
$148
Housing
7.47%
$133
Medical care
7.10%
$132
Transportation
6.12%
$127
Core (all items less food & energy)
6.00%
$126
Apparel
4.37%
$119
Not shown because the BLS began these indexes after 1971: recreation (1993–), education & communication (1993–).
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1971
$100 from 1971 had already become $110 by
1973, on its way to $133 in 1975; each row shows the CPI, that
year's inflation rate, and the running value.
Within the span, inflation peaked at 11.0% in 1974, and the smallest rise was 3.2% in 1972.
In 1975, prices rose 9.1% and $100 from 1971 had the buying
power of $133; the year's average CPI of 53.8 is the level
behind every 1975 figure on this page.
Consumer prices rose 9.1% in 1975, easing slightly from 1974’s
11.0% but still running far above anything the country had experienced before
the decade began. The recession that started in November 1973, the deepest
since the Great Depression, bottomed out that March, yet unemployment kept
climbing through the year and touched 9%, a combination of high inflation and
high joblessness that had no precedent in the postwar data. Vietnam ended
that April 30, when North Vietnamese forces captured Saigon and the last
Americans were evacuated by helicopter from the U.S. embassy roof. Fiscal
strain hit closer to home too: New York City, facing bankruptcy after years
of borrowing to paper over budget gaps, asked Washington for help that
October. President Ford’s initial refusal produced the Daily News headline
“Ford to City: Drop Dead,” though he ultimately signed a federal loan package
that December. Amid the gloom, Bill Gates and Paul Allen founded Microsoft
that April in Albuquerque, New Mexico, to sell a version of the BASIC
programming language for the Altair 8800, one of the first personal
computers sold to hobbyists. A median household earned $11,800 in 1975, a new
home sold for a median $39,300, and first-class postage held at 10 cents,
unchanged since 1974’s increase. Consumer prices stood 443.4%
above their 1913 level, with the decade barely past its
midpoint.
MLA: “Inflation from 1971 to 1975: $100 is worth $133 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1971-to-1975/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1971 to 1975. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1971-to-1975/