$100 in 1971 is worth $402 in 1998,
because prices increased 302.5% over that period, an average of
5.29% a year.
$100 in 1971 has
the same buying power as
$402
in 1998
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
302.5%
Average inflation rate
5.29% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$402
Price difference ($100 base)
$302
CPI in 1971
40.5
CPI in 1998
163
Inflation in 1971
4.38%
Inflation in 1998
1.56%
$100 in 1971 → 1998
$402
$100 in 1998 → 1971
$24.85
What happened to prices between 1971 and 1998
Between 1971 and 1998, the Consumer Price Index went from 40.5 to 163.
Cumulatively, prices increased 302.5%, which works out to an average of
5.29% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1971 bought what
$0.25 buys in 1998: the 1971 dollar
lost 75.2% of its purchasing power over
these 27 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 1998 at the same ratio, 4.02: $1,000 becomes
$4,025, and $10,000 becomes $40,247.
Amount in 1971
Value in 1998
$1.00
$4.02
$5.00
$20.12
$10.00
$40.25
$20.00
$80.49
$50.00
$201
$100
$402
$500
$2,012
$1,000
$4,025
$5,000
$20,123
$10,000
$40,247
$100,000
$402,469
$1,000,000
$4,024,691
Inflation by spending category, 1971–1998
Between 1971 and 1998, medical care rose the most, up 570.6%, while apparel rose the least, up 117.7%, against 302.5% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1971
spending costs in 1998, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1971 →
All items (CPI-U)
5.29%
$402
Medical care
7.30%
$671
Housing
5.48%
$422
Core (all items less food & energy)
5.33%
$406
Food
5.25%
$398
Energy
5.15%
$388
Transportation
4.84%
$358
Apparel
2.92%
$218
Not shown because the BLS began these indexes after 1971: recreation (1993–), education & communication (1993–).
Decade by decade: 1971 to 1998
Prices climbed fastest in the 1970s, averaging 8.21% a year, and slowest in the 1990s (2.80% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1971–1998 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
1990–1998
2.80%
24.7%
$402
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1971
$100 from 1971 had already become $257 by
1984, on its way to $402 in 1998; 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 1.6% in 1998.
In 1998, prices rose 1.6% and $100 from 1971 had the buying
power of $402; the year's average CPI of 163 is the level
behind every 1998 figure on this page.
The median household earned about $38,900 in 1998, gas averaged just $1.06 a gallon, its
cheapest of the decade, and a new home cost roughly $152,500. Inflation ran at 1.6% for the
year, the lowest of the 1990s, as a glut of crude oil, worsened by weak demand from Asia’s
slowdown, pushed prices below $11 a barrel by December and pulled pump prices down with them.
The calm at home came alongside real turmoil abroad: in August, Russia devalued the ruble and
defaulted on its domestic debt, rattling markets already unsettled by the Asian financial
crisis, and in September the hedge fund Long-Term Capital Management collapsed after its highly
leveraged bets went bad, prompting the Federal Reserve to organize a private-sector bailout by
more than a dozen banks to prevent a disorderly unwinding of its roughly $100 billion in
positions. The Fed also cut interest rates three times that fall, in September, October, and
November, an insurance policy against the global financial turmoil spreading to the U.S.
economy. Cheap oil and a well-timed set of rate cuts left 1998 as a year the U.S. economy
absorbed two foreign financial crises without much of a dent at home.
MLA: “Inflation from 1971 to 1998: $100 is worth $402 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1971-to-1998/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1971 to 1998. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1971-to-1998/