$100 in 1971 is worth $271 in 1986,
because prices increased 170.6% over that period, an average of
6.86% a year.
$100 in 1971 has
the same buying power as
$271
in 1986
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
170.6%
Average inflation rate
6.86% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$271
Price difference ($100 base)
$171
CPI in 1971
40.5
CPI in 1986
109.6
Inflation in 1971
4.38%
Inflation in 1986
1.86%
$100 in 1971 → 1986
$271
$100 in 1986 → 1971
$36.95
What happened to prices between 1971 and 1986
Between 1971 and 1986, the Consumer Price Index went from 40.5 to 109.6.
Cumulatively, prices increased 170.6%, which works out to an average of
6.86% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1971 bought what
$0.37 buys in 1986: the 1971 dollar
lost 63.0% of its purchasing power over
these 15 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 1986 at the same ratio, 2.71: $1,000 becomes
$2,706, and $10,000 becomes $27,062.
Amount in 1971
Value in 1986
$1.00
$2.71
$5.00
$13.53
$10.00
$27.06
$20.00
$54.12
$50.00
$135
$100
$271
$500
$1,353
$1,000
$2,706
$5,000
$13,531
$10,000
$27,062
$100,000
$270,617
$1,000,000
$2,706,173
Inflation by spending category, 1971–1986
Between 1971 and 1986, medical care rose the most, up 238.0%, while apparel rose the least, up 73.3%, against 170.6% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1971
spending costs in 1986, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1971 →
All items (CPI-U)
6.86%
$271
Medical care
8.46%
$338
Energy
8.35%
$333
Housing
7.40%
$292
Food
6.84%
$270
Core (all items less food & energy)
6.73%
$266
Transportation
6.55%
$259
Apparel
3.73%
$173
Not shown because the BLS began these indexes after 1971: recreation (1993–), education & communication (1993–).
Decade by decade: 1971 to 1986
Prices climbed fastest in the 1970s, averaging 8.21% a year, and slowest in the 1980s (4.87% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1971–1986 change:
Years
Avg. yearly inflation
Price change
$100 from 1971, at end
1971–1980
8.21%
103.5%
$203
1980–1986
4.87%
33.0%
$271
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1971
$100 from 1971 had already become $161 by
1978, on its way to $271 in 1986; 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 1.9% in 1986.
In 1986, prices rose 1.9% and $100 from 1971 had the buying
power of $271; the year's average CPI of 109.6 is the level
behind every 1986 figure on this page.
1986 delivered the decade’s biggest one-year drop in inflation, and it came
almost entirely from a single source: oil. Saudi Arabia abandoned its policy
of restraining output to prop up prices, and world crude collapsed from
about $27 a barrel to under $10 by midyear. Gasoline, which had averaged
$1.12 a gallon in 1985, fell to 86 cents. With energy costs plunging,
headline CPI inflation for the year came in at just 1.9%, the lowest annual
rate since 1965 and a striking bookend to 1980’s 13.5% peak. The relief was
uneven: prices for most goods and services outside energy kept rising at a
moderate pace, so households that didn’t drive much or heat with oil felt
less of the difference. In October, Congress passed the Tax Reform Act of
1986, a bipartisan overhaul that cut the top individual income tax rate from
50% to 28% while closing many deductions and shelters, the broadest rewrite
of the federal tax code since World War II. Between cheap gas and falling
interest rates, 1986 read like proof that the inflationary 1970s were a
closed chapter, six years after the U.S. economy had felt anything but
calm.
MLA: “Inflation from 1971 to 1986: $100 is worth $271 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1971-to-1986/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1971 to 1986. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1971-to-1986/