$100 in 1971 is worth $257 in 1984,
because prices increased 156.5% over that period, an average of
7.52% a year.
$100 in 1971 has
the same buying power as
$257
in 1984
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
156.5%
Average inflation rate
7.52% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$257
Price difference ($100 base)
$157
CPI in 1971
40.5
CPI in 1984
103.9
Inflation in 1971
4.38%
Inflation in 1984
4.32%
$100 in 1971 → 1984
$257
$100 in 1984 → 1971
$38.98
What happened to prices between 1971 and 1984
Between 1971 and 1984, the Consumer Price Index went from 40.5 to 103.9.
Cumulatively, prices increased 156.5%, which works out to an average of
7.52% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1971 bought what
$0.39 buys in 1984: the 1971 dollar
lost 61.0% of its purchasing power over
these 13 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 1984 at the same ratio, 2.57: $1,000 becomes
$2,565, and $10,000 becomes $25,654.
Amount in 1971
Value in 1984
$1.00
$2.57
$5.00
$12.83
$10.00
$25.65
$20.00
$51.31
$50.00
$128
$100
$257
$500
$1,283
$1,000
$2,565
$5,000
$12,827
$10,000
$25,654
$100,000
$256,543
$1,000,000
$2,565,432
Inflation by spending category, 1971–1984
Between 1971 and 1984, energy rose the most, up 280.8%, while apparel rose the least, up 67.1%, against 156.5% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1971
spending costs in 1984, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1971 →
All items (CPI-U)
7.52%
$257
Energy
10.83%
$381
Medical care
8.70%
$296
Housing
8.02%
$273
Transportation
7.71%
$263
Food
7.48%
$255
Core (all items less food & energy)
7.13%
$245
Apparel
4.03%
$167
Not shown because the BLS began these indexes after 1971: recreation (1993–), education & communication (1993–).
Decade by decade: 1971 to 1984
Prices climbed fastest in the 1970s, averaging 8.21% a year, and slowest in the 1980s (5.97% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1971–1984 change:
Years
Avg. yearly inflation
Price change
$100 from 1971, at end
1971–1980
8.21%
103.5%
$203
1980–1984
5.97%
26.1%
$257
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1971
$100 from 1971 had already become $150 by
1977, on its way to $257 in 1984; 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 1984, prices rose 4.3% and $100 from 1971 had the buying
power of $257; the year's average CPI of 103.9 is the level
behind every 1984 figure on this page.
1984 was the year the recovery became a boom. Real GDP grew 7.2%, the
fastest calendar-year growth since 1951, as the tax cuts passed in 1981
combined with falling interest rates and rebuilding consumer confidence.
Unemployment, which had topped 10.8% just two years earlier, fell below
7.5%. Inflation ticked up to 4.3% from 3.2% the year before, but nothing
close to a return of the 1970s wage-price spiral: the Federal Reserve under
Paul Volcker kept policy tight enough to hold the line while growth ran hot.
The strength of the expansion, branded “Morning in America” in President
Reagan’s reelection campaign, carried him to a 49-state landslide over
Walter Mondale that November, at the time the widest electoral-vote margin
in U.S. history. For households, the numbers behind the slogan were
concrete: median income rose to about $22,400, and a gallon of gas cost
$1.13, roughly what it had cost three years earlier even as wages kept
climbing. The contrast with 1980, when 13.5% inflation and interest rates
near 20% had defined the economy, could not have been sharper.
MLA: “Inflation from 1971 to 1984: $100 is worth $257 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1971-to-1984/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1971 to 1984. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1971-to-1984/