$100 in 1971 is worth $357 in 1993,
because prices increased 256.8% over that period, an average of
5.95% a year.
$100 in 1971 has
the same buying power as
$357
in 1993
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
256.8%
Average inflation rate
5.95% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$357
Price difference ($100 base)
$257
CPI in 1971
40.5
CPI in 1993
144.5
Inflation in 1971
4.38%
Inflation in 1993
2.99%
$100 in 1971 → 1993
$357
$100 in 1993 → 1971
$28.03
What happened to prices between 1971 and 1993
Between 1971 and 1993, the Consumer Price Index went from 40.5 to 144.5.
Cumulatively, prices increased 256.8%, which works out to an average of
5.95% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1971 bought what
$0.28 buys in 1993: the 1971 dollar
lost 72.0% of its purchasing power over
these 22 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 1993 at the same ratio, 3.57: $1,000 becomes
$3,568, and $10,000 becomes $35,679.
Amount in 1971
Value in 1993
$1.00
$3.57
$5.00
$17.84
$10.00
$35.68
$20.00
$71.36
$50.00
$178
$100
$357
$500
$1,784
$1,000
$3,568
$5,000
$17,840
$10,000
$35,679
$100,000
$356,790
$1,000,000
$3,567,901
Inflation by spending category, 1971–1993
Between 1971 and 1993, medical care rose the most, up 457.9%, while apparel rose the least, up 118.8%, against 256.8% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1971
spending costs in 1993, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1971 →
All items (CPI-U)
5.95%
$357
Medical care
8.13%
$558
Energy
6.42%
$393
Housing
6.15%
$372
Core (all items less food & energy)
5.95%
$356
Food
5.84%
$349
Transportation
5.58%
$330
Apparel
3.62%
$219
Not shown because the BLS began these indexes after 1971: recreation (1993–), education & communication (1993–).
Decade by decade: 1971 to 1993
Prices climbed fastest in the 1970s, averaging 8.21% a year, and slowest in the 1990s (3.40% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1971–1993 change:
Years
Avg. yearly inflation
Price change
$100 from 1971, at end
1971–1980
8.21%
103.5%
$203
1980–1990
4.72%
58.6%
$323
1990–1993
3.40%
10.6%
$357
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1971
$100 from 1971 had already become $238 by
1982, on its way to $357 in 1993; 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 1993, prices rose 3.0% and $100 from 1971 had the buying
power of $357; the year's average CPI of 144.5 is the level
behind every 1993 figure on this page.
By 1993, the median household earned about $31,200, gas averaged $1.11 a gallon, and a new home
cost roughly $126,500. Inflation ran at 3.0% for the year, holding close to where it had settled
the year before as the recovery slowly gathered strength. Washington spent much of the year on
two pieces of unfinished business from the recession: a deficit-reduction package, the Omnibus
Budget Reconciliation Act, that raised the top income tax rate to 39.6% to start narrowing a
budget gap left over from the 1980s, and a trade deal, the North American Free Trade Agreement,
that President Clinton signed into law in December after a contentious fight in Congress. NAFTA
phased out most tariffs between the U.S., Mexico, and Canada and took effect the following
January. The year’s other defining event had nothing to do with the economy: in February, a bomb
exploded in the World Trade Center’s parking garage, killing six people and injuring more than a
thousand. By year’s end, the pieces of the decade’s later economic story, freer trade, a
shrinking deficit, and inflation holding near 3%, were already in place.
MLA: “Inflation from 1971 to 1993: $100 is worth $357 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1971-to-1993/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1971 to 1993. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1971-to-1993/