$100 in 1971 is worth $203 in 1980,
because prices increased 103.5% over that period, an average of
8.21% a year.
$100 in 1971 has
the same buying power as
$203
in 1980
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
103.5%
Average inflation rate
8.21% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$203
Price difference ($100 base)
$103
CPI in 1971
40.5
CPI in 1980
82.4
Inflation in 1971
4.38%
Inflation in 1980
13.50%
$100 in 1971 → 1980
$203
$100 in 1980 → 1971
$49.15
What happened to prices between 1971 and 1980
Between 1971 and 1980, the Consumer Price Index went from 40.5 to 82.4.
Cumulatively, prices increased 103.5%, which works out to an average of
8.21% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1971 bought what
$0.49 buys in 1980: the 1971 dollar
lost 50.8% of its purchasing power over
these 9 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 1980 at the same ratio, 2.03: $1,000 becomes
$2,035, and $10,000 becomes $20,346.
Amount in 1971
Value in 1980
$1.00
$2.03
$5.00
$10.17
$10.00
$20.35
$20.00
$40.69
$50.00
$102
$100
$203
$500
$1,017
$1,000
$2,035
$5,000
$10,173
$10,000
$20,346
$100,000
$203,457
$1,000,000
$2,034,568
Inflation by spending category, 1971–1980
Between 1971 and 1980, energy rose the most, up 224.5%, while apparel rose the least, up 48.8%, against 103.5% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1971
spending costs in 1980, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1971 →
All items (CPI-U)
8.21%
$203
Energy
13.97%
$325
Food
8.87%
$215
Housing
8.79%
$213
Transportation
8.61%
$210
Medical care
8.45%
$207
Core (all items less food & energy)
7.34%
$189
Apparel
4.51%
$149
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 $133 by
1975, on its way to $203 in 1980; 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 1980, prices rose 13.5% and $100 from 1971 had the buying
power of $203; the year's average CPI of 82.4 is the level
behind every 1980 figure on this page.
1980 sat at the very peak of the Great Inflation. Prices rose 13.5% in that
single year, mortgage rates were climbing toward 16%, and the Federal Reserve
under Paul Volcker was administering the painful interest-rate medicine that
would finally break the inflationary spiral, at the cost of the deep 1981–82
recession. No single year looms larger in how Americans think about inflation.
MLA: “Inflation from 1971 to 1980: $100 is worth $203 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1971-to-1980/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1971 to 1980. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1971-to-1980/