$100 in 1971 is worth $161 in 1978,
because prices increased 61.0% over that period, an average of
7.04% a year.
$100 in 1971 has
the same buying power as
$161
in 1978
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
61.0%
Average inflation rate
7.04% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$161
Price difference ($100 base)
$60.99
CPI in 1971
40.5
CPI in 1978
65.2
Inflation in 1971
4.38%
Inflation in 1978
7.59%
$100 in 1971 → 1978
$161
$100 in 1978 → 1971
$62.12
What happened to prices between 1971 and 1978
Between 1971 and 1978, the Consumer Price Index went from 40.5 to 65.2.
Cumulatively, prices increased 61.0%, which works out to an average of
7.04% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1971 bought what
$0.62 buys in 1978: the 1971 dollar
lost 37.9% of its purchasing power over
these 7 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 1978 at the same ratio, 1.61: $1,000 becomes
$1,610, and $10,000 becomes $16,099.
Amount in 1971
Value in 1978
$1.00
$1.61
$5.00
$8.05
$10.00
$16.10
$20.00
$32.20
$50.00
$80.49
$100
$161
$500
$805
$1,000
$1,610
$5,000
$8,049
$10,000
$16,099
$100,000
$160,988
$1,000,000
$1,609,877
Inflation by spending category, 1971–1978
Between 1971 and 1978, energy rose the most, up 98.1%, while apparel rose the least, up 33.2%, against 61.0% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1971
spending costs in 1978, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1971 →
All items (CPI-U)
7.04%
$161
Energy
10.26%
$198
Food
8.61%
$178
Medical care
7.98%
$171
Housing
7.34%
$164
Transportation
6.58%
$156
Core (all items less food & energy)
6.30%
$153
Apparel
4.18%
$133
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 $122 by
1974, on its way to $161 in 1978; 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 1978, prices rose 7.6% and $100 from 1971 had the buying
power of $161; the year's average CPI of 65.2 is the level
behind every 1978 figure on this page.
Consumer prices rose 7.6% in 1978, accelerating for a second straight year as
rising wages, a weakening dollar, and climbing energy costs outpaced the
Federal Reserve’s response. Fed chairman G. William Miller, appointed by
Carter that March, kept interest rates too low to slow the trend, a policy
later cited as one reason inflation kept building toward the following year’s
crisis. California voters responded to their own version of the problem that
June, passing Proposition 13 by nearly two to one to cap property tax rates
after years of rising home values had pushed tax bills up alongside them.
Foreign policy delivered one of the decade’s genuine breakthroughs: President
Carter brought Egyptian President Anwar Sadat and Israeli Prime Minister
Menachem Begin together for thirteen days of negotiations at Camp David that
September, producing a framework for peace between the two countries that was
signed as a treaty the following March. First-class postage rose to 15 cents
that May 29, a rate that would hold longer than any other in the decade. The
year ended in tragedy: cult leader Jim Jones directed the mass murder-suicide
of more than 900 followers at a remote settlement in Guyana that November 18.
A median household earned $15,064 in 1978, a new home sold for a median
$55,700, and gas averaged 63 cents a gallon. Consumer prices stood 558.6%
above their 1913 level, with the decade’s worst inflation
still to come.
MLA: “Inflation from 1971 to 1978: $100 is worth $161 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1971-to-1978/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1971 to 1978. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1971-to-1978/