$100 in 1971 is worth $444 in 2002,
because prices increased 344.2% over that period, an average of
4.93% a year.
$100 in 1971 has
the same buying power as
$444
in 2002
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
344.2%
Average inflation rate
4.93% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$444
Price difference ($100 base)
$344
CPI in 1971
40.5
CPI in 2002
179.9
Inflation in 1971
4.38%
Inflation in 2002
1.58%
$100 in 1971 → 2002
$444
$100 in 2002 → 1971
$22.51
What happened to prices between 1971 and 2002
Between 1971 and 2002, the Consumer Price Index went from 40.5 to 179.9.
Cumulatively, prices increased 344.2%, which works out to an average of
4.93% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1971 bought what
$0.23 buys in 2002: the 1971 dollar
lost 77.5% of its purchasing power over
these 31 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 2002 at the same ratio, 4.44: $1,000 becomes
$4,442, and $10,000 becomes $44,420.
Amount in 1971
Value in 2002
$1.00
$4.44
$5.00
$22.21
$10.00
$44.42
$20.00
$88.84
$50.00
$222
$100
$444
$500
$2,221
$1,000
$4,442
$5,000
$22,210
$10,000
$44,420
$100,000
$444,198
$1,000,000
$4,441,975
Inflation by spending category, 1971–2002
Between 1971 and 2002, medical care rose the most, up 691.1%, while apparel rose the least, up 102.9%, against 344.2% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1971
spending costs in 2002, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1971 →
All items (CPI-U)
4.93%
$444
Medical care
6.90%
$791
Housing
5.15%
$474
Energy
5.04%
$459
Core (all items less food & energy)
4.94%
$446
Food
4.87%
$436
Transportation
4.46%
$387
Apparel
2.31%
$203
Not shown because the BLS began these indexes after 1971: recreation (1993–), education & communication (1993–).
Decade by decade: 1971 to 2002
Prices climbed fastest in the 1970s, averaging 8.21% a year, and slowest in the 2000s (2.21% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1971–2002 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
1990–2000
2.80%
31.8%
$425
2000–2002
2.21%
4.5%
$444
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1971
$100 from 1971 had already become $280 by
1987, on its way to $444 in 2002; 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.
Long periods are sampled every 2 years; the calculator above covers any pair of years.
The destination year: 2002
In 2002, prices rose 1.6% and $100 from 1971 had the buying
power of $444; the year's average CPI of 179.9 is the level
behind every 2002 figure on this page.
The CPI rose 1.6% in 2002, the lowest annual rate of the decade so far, with gasoline down to an
average of $1.36 a gallon and slack in the labor market keeping wage pressure low. The median
household earned about $42,400, and a new home cost roughly $187,600, an increase of about 7%
from the year before as low mortgage rates began to lift housing. The Federal Reserve cut its
policy rate to 1.25% in November. Stocks were moving the other way: after the Enron and WorldCom
scandals, the S&P 500 hit its bear-market low on October 9, about 49% below its March 2000
peak, and Congress passed the Sarbanes-Oxley Act in July to tighten corporate accounting rules.
On January 1, euro banknotes and coins replaced national currencies in 12 European countries. A
first-class stamp rose to 37 cents in June, and the federal minimum wage stayed at $5.15.
MLA: “Inflation from 1971 to 2002: $100 is worth $444 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1971-to-2002/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1971 to 2002. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1971-to-2002/