$100 in 1971 is worth $454 in 2003,
because prices increased 354.3% over that period, an average of
4.84% a year.
$100 in 1971 has
the same buying power as
$454
in 2003
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
354.3%
Average inflation rate
4.84% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$454
Price difference ($100 base)
$354
CPI in 1971
40.5
CPI in 2003
184
Inflation in 1971
4.38%
Inflation in 2003
2.28%
$100 in 1971 → 2003
$454
$100 in 2003 → 1971
$22.01
What happened to prices between 1971 and 2003
Between 1971 and 2003, the Consumer Price Index went from 40.5 to 184.
Cumulatively, prices increased 354.3%, which works out to an average of
4.84% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1971 bought what
$0.22 buys in 2003: the 1971 dollar
lost 78.0% of its purchasing power over
these 32 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 2003 at the same ratio, 4.54: $1,000 becomes
$4,543, and $10,000 becomes $45,432.
Amount in 1971
Value in 2003
$1.00
$4.54
$5.00
$22.72
$10.00
$45.43
$20.00
$90.86
$50.00
$227
$100
$454
$500
$2,272
$1,000
$4,543
$5,000
$22,716
$10,000
$45,432
$100,000
$454,321
$1,000,000
$4,543,210
Inflation by spending category, 1971–2003
Between 1971 and 2003, medical care rose the most, up 723.0%, while apparel rose the least, up 97.9%, against 354.3% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1971
spending costs in 2003, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1971 →
All items (CPI-U)
4.84%
$454
Medical care
6.81%
$823
Energy
5.26%
$515
Housing
5.07%
$486
Core (all items less food & energy)
4.83%
$452
Food
4.78%
$446
Transportation
4.42%
$399
Apparel
2.16%
$198
Not shown because the BLS began these indexes after 1971: recreation (1993–), education & communication (1993–).
Decade by decade: 1971 to 2003
Prices climbed fastest in the 1970s, averaging 8.21% a year, and slowest in the 2000s (2.23% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1971–2003 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
2000–2003
2.23%
6.9%
$454
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1971
$100 from 1971 had already become $280 by
1987, on its way to $454 in 2003; 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: 2003
In 2003, prices rose 2.3% and $100 from 1971 had the buying
power of $454; the year's average CPI of 184 is the level
behind every 2003 figure on this page.
Inflation was 2.3% in 2003, up from 1.6% in 2002, as gasoline climbed from $1.36 to $1.59 a
gallon around the March invasion of Iraq. Even so, the Federal Reserve spent the year worried
about prices being too low: on June 25 it cut its policy rate to 1.0%, the lowest since 1958,
and said the risk of deflation, though small, deserved a response. The median household earned
about $43,300 and a new home cost roughly $195,000. Congress passed a second round of tax cuts
in May, and the economy grew faster in the second half of the year than at any point since
1999. Hiring lagged the recovery, and unemployment peaked at 6.3% in June. A first-class stamp
stayed at 37 cents and the federal minimum wage at $5.15.
MLA: “Inflation from 1971 to 2003: $100 is worth $454 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1971-to-2003/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1971 to 2003. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1971-to-2003/