$100 in 1971 is worth $238 in 1982,
because prices increased 138.3% over that period, an average of
8.21% a year.
$100 in 1971 has
the same buying power as
$238
in 1982
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
138.3%
Average inflation rate
8.21% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$238
Price difference ($100 base)
$138
CPI in 1971
40.5
CPI in 1982
96.5
Inflation in 1971
4.38%
Inflation in 1982
6.16%
$100 in 1971 → 1982
$238
$100 in 1982 → 1971
$41.97
What happened to prices between 1971 and 1982
Between 1971 and 1982, the Consumer Price Index went from 40.5 to 96.5.
Cumulatively, prices increased 138.3%, which works out to an average of
8.21% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1971 bought what
$0.42 buys in 1982: the 1971 dollar
lost 58.0% of its purchasing power over
these 11 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 1982 at the same ratio, 2.38: $1,000 becomes
$2,383, and $10,000 becomes $23,827.
Amount in 1971
Value in 1982
$1.00
$2.38
$5.00
$11.91
$10.00
$23.83
$20.00
$47.65
$50.00
$119
$100
$238
$500
$1,191
$1,000
$2,383
$5,000
$11,914
$10,000
$23,827
$100,000
$238,272
$1,000,000
$2,382,716
Inflation by spending category, 1971–1982
Between 1971 and 1982, energy rose the most, up 274.3%, while apparel rose the least, up 60.1%, against 138.3% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1971
spending costs in 1982, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1971 →
All items (CPI-U)
8.21%
$238
Energy
12.75%
$374
Medical care
8.93%
$256
Housing
8.88%
$255
Transportation
8.51%
$246
Food
8.33%
$241
Core (all items less food & energy)
7.62%
$224
Apparel
4.37%
$160
Not shown because the BLS began these indexes after 1971: recreation (1993–), education & communication (1993–).
Decade by decade: 1971 to 1982
Prices climbed fastest in the 1980s, averaging 8.22% a year, and slowest in the 1970s (8.21% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1971–1982 change:
Years
Avg. yearly inflation
Price change
$100 from 1971, at end
1971–1980
8.21%
103.5%
$203
1980–1982
8.22%
17.1%
$238
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1971
$100 from 1971 had already become $140 by
1976, on its way to $238 in 1982; 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 1982, prices rose 6.2% and $100 from 1971 had the buying
power of $238; the year's average CPI of 96.5 is the level
behind every 1982 figure on this page.
1982 was the hard bottom of the disinflation Paul Volcker had set in motion.
Consumer prices rose just 6.2% for the year, roughly half of 1981’s rate and a
fraction of the 13.5% peak from two years earlier. The price fell because
demand had been crushed: the recession that began in July 1981 did not
officially end until November 1982, and unemployment kept climbing even as
the economy technically began to recover, reaching 10.8% in November and
December, the highest rate since the Great Depression. Manufacturing and
construction, especially the auto and housing industries starved of credit by
double-digit interest rates, bore the worst of it. Abroad, Mexico’s August
announcement that it could not service its foreign debt opened a Latin
American debt crisis that spread across the region and forced the Federal
Reserve and IMF into emergency lending. The stress on the financial system
pushed Volcker to start easing interest rates that October, stepping back
from the strict money-supply targets he had followed since 1979. Markets read
the shift correctly: the Dow Jones Industrial Average bottomed at 776.92 in
mid-August, and the rally that followed became the opening leg of the 1980s
bull market. By year’s end, the trade-off Volcker had bet on was becoming
visible: much lower inflation, at the cost of the worst unemployment in 40
years.
MLA: “Inflation from 1971 to 1982: $100 is worth $238 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1971-to-1982/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1971 to 1982. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1971-to-1982/