$100 in 1971 is worth $411 in 1999,
because prices increased 311.4% over that period, an average of
5.18% a year.
$100 in 1971 has
the same buying power as
$411
in 1999
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
311.4%
Average inflation rate
5.18% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$411
Price difference ($100 base)
$311
CPI in 1971
40.5
CPI in 1999
166.6
Inflation in 1971
4.38%
Inflation in 1999
2.21%
$100 in 1971 → 1999
$411
$100 in 1999 → 1971
$24.31
What happened to prices between 1971 and 1999
Between 1971 and 1999, the Consumer Price Index went from 40.5 to 166.6.
Cumulatively, prices increased 311.4%, which works out to an average of
5.18% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1971 bought what
$0.24 buys in 1999: the 1971 dollar
lost 75.7% of its purchasing power over
these 28 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 1999 at the same ratio, 4.11: $1,000 becomes
$4,114, and $10,000 becomes $41,136.
Amount in 1971
Value in 1999
$1.00
$4.11
$5.00
$20.57
$10.00
$41.14
$20.00
$82.27
$50.00
$206
$100
$411
$500
$2,057
$1,000
$4,114
$5,000
$20,568
$10,000
$41,136
$100,000
$411,358
$1,000,000
$4,113,580
Inflation by spending category, 1971–1999
Between 1971 and 1999, medical care rose the most, up 594.2%, while apparel rose the least, up 114.9%, against 311.4% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1971
spending costs in 1999, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1971 →
All items (CPI-U)
5.18%
$411
Medical care
7.16%
$694
Housing
5.36%
$431
Core (all items less food & energy)
5.21%
$415
Food
5.13%
$406
Energy
5.10%
$402
Transportation
4.74%
$366
Apparel
2.77%
$215
Not shown because the BLS began these indexes after 1971: recreation (1993–), education & communication (1993–).
Decade by decade: 1971 to 1999
Prices climbed fastest in the 1970s, averaging 8.21% a year, and slowest in the 1990s (2.73% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1971–1999 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
1990–1999
2.73%
27.5%
$411
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1971
$100 from 1971 had already become $266 by
1985, on its way to $411 in 1999; 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 1999, prices rose 2.2% and $100 from 1971 had the buying
power of $411; the year's average CPI of 166.6 is the level
behind every 1999 figure on this page.
The median household earned about $40,700 in 1999, gas averaged $1.17 a gallon, and a new home
cost roughly $161,000. Inflation ran at 2.2% for the year, ticking back up from 1998’s decade low
as oil prices recovered from their collapse. The decade closed with two changes to the financial
system that would shape the one after it: on January 1, the euro launched as an accounting
currency across 11 European countries, trading alongside national currencies like the French
franc and German mark ahead of physical cash in 2002, and in November, Congress passed the
Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act, tearing down the Depression-era wall between commercial banks, investment
banks, and insurers. Stock markets, meanwhile, were absorbed in a boom of their own: the Nasdaq
surged through the year on soaring internet-stock valuations, and the Federal Reserve raised
interest rates three times in the second half of 1999 partly to cool the exuberance, even as it
pumped extra liquidity into the banking system to guard against any disruption from the Y2K
rollover. A first-class stamp cost 33 cents. Inflation had spent the decade falling from 1990’s
5.4% peak to averages closer to 2-3%, and 1999 closed it out almost exactly where the 1990s as a
whole had settled.
MLA: “Inflation from 1971 to 1999: $100 is worth $411 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1971-to-1999/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1971 to 1999. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1971-to-1999/