$100 in 1971 is worth $387 in 1996,
because prices increased 287.4% over that period, an average of
5.57% a year.
$100 in 1971 has
the same buying power as
$387
in 1996
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
287.4%
Average inflation rate
5.57% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$387
Price difference ($100 base)
$287
CPI in 1971
40.5
CPI in 1996
156.9
Inflation in 1971
4.38%
Inflation in 1996
2.95%
$100 in 1971 → 1996
$387
$100 in 1996 → 1971
$25.81
What happened to prices between 1971 and 1996
Between 1971 and 1996, the Consumer Price Index went from 40.5 to 156.9.
Cumulatively, prices increased 287.4%, which works out to an average of
5.57% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1971 bought what
$0.26 buys in 1996: the 1971 dollar
lost 74.2% of its purchasing power over
these 25 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 1996 at the same ratio, 3.87: $1,000 becomes
$3,874, and $10,000 becomes $38,741.
Amount in 1971
Value in 1996
$1.00
$3.87
$5.00
$19.37
$10.00
$38.74
$20.00
$77.48
$50.00
$194
$100
$387
$500
$1,937
$1,000
$3,874
$5,000
$19,370
$10,000
$38,741
$100,000
$387,407
$1,000,000
$3,874,074
Inflation by spending category, 1971–1996
Between 1971 and 1996, medical care rose the most, up 532.1%, while apparel rose the least, up 115.5%, against 287.4% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1971
spending costs in 1996, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1971 →
All items (CPI-U)
5.57%
$387
Medical care
7.65%
$632
Energy
5.86%
$415
Housing
5.72%
$402
Core (all items less food & energy)
5.57%
$388
Food
5.48%
$379
Transportation
5.28%
$362
Apparel
3.12%
$216
Not shown because the BLS began these indexes after 1971: recreation (1993–), education & communication (1993–).
Decade by decade: 1971 to 1996
Prices climbed fastest in the 1970s, averaging 8.21% a year, and slowest in the 1990s (3.09% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1971–1996 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
1990–1996
3.09%
20.0%
$387
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1971
$100 from 1971 had already become $246 by
1983, on its way to $387 in 1996; 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 1996, prices rose 3.0% and $100 from 1971 had the buying
power of $387; the year's average CPI of 156.9 is the level
behind every 1996 figure on this page.
The median household earned about $35,500 in 1996, gas averaged $1.23 a gallon, up noticeably
from the mid-decade lull, and a new home cost roughly $140,000. Inflation ran at 3.0% for the
year, ticking back up from 1995 as energy prices firmed. Washington passed two of the decade’s
more consequential laws that year: in February, the Telecommunications Act rewrote the rules for
phone, cable, and broadcast media for the first time since 1934, opening local markets to
competition and easing ownership limits; in August, a welfare overhaul ended the federal
guarantee of cash assistance, replacing it with block grants to states and time limits on
benefits. In October, the federal minimum wage rose to $4.75 an hour, its first increase in five
years and the opening step of a two-part law that would take it to $5.15 the following
September. Two sweeping new laws and a minimum wage finally on the move again made 1996 a year
that changed more about how the economy was governed than about how fast prices moved.
MLA: “Inflation from 1971 to 1996: $100 is worth $387 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1971-to-1996/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1971 to 1996. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1971-to-1996/