$100 in 1971 is worth $498 in 2006,
because prices increased 397.8% over that period, an average of
4.69% a year.
$100 in 1971 has
the same buying power as
$498
in 2006
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
397.8%
Average inflation rate
4.69% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$498
Price difference ($100 base)
$398
CPI in 1971
40.5
CPI in 2006
201.6
Inflation in 1971
4.38%
Inflation in 2006
3.23%
$100 in 1971 → 2006
$498
$100 in 2006 → 1971
$20.09
What happened to prices between 1971 and 2006
Between 1971 and 2006, the Consumer Price Index went from 40.5 to 201.6.
Cumulatively, prices increased 397.8%, which works out to an average of
4.69% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1971 bought what
$0.20 buys in 2006: the 1971 dollar
lost 79.9% of its purchasing power over
these 35 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 2006 at the same ratio, 4.98: $1,000 becomes
$4,978, and $10,000 becomes $49,778.
Amount in 1971
Value in 2006
$1.00
$4.98
$5.00
$24.89
$10.00
$49.78
$20.00
$99.56
$50.00
$249
$100
$498
$500
$2,489
$1,000
$4,978
$5,000
$24,889
$10,000
$49,778
$100,000
$497,778
$1,000,000
$4,977,778
Inflation by spending category, 1971–2006
Between 1971 and 2006, medical care rose the most, up 831.3%, while apparel rose the least, up 95.6%, against 397.8% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1971
spending costs in 2006, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1971 →
All items (CPI-U)
4.69%
$498
Medical care
6.58%
$931
Energy
5.90%
$743
Housing
4.91%
$535
Food
4.60%
$483
Core (all items less food & energy)
4.60%
$482
Transportation
4.44%
$458
Apparel
1.94%
$196
Not shown because the BLS began these indexes after 1971: recreation (1993–), education & communication (1993–).
Decade by decade: 1971 to 2006
Prices climbed fastest in the 1970s, averaging 8.21% a year, and slowest in the 2000s (2.66% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1971–2006 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
2000–2006
2.66%
17.1%
$498
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1971
$100 from 1971 had already become $306 by
1989, on its way to $498 in 2006; 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: 2006
In 2006, prices rose 3.2% and $100 from 1971 had the buying
power of $498; the year's average CPI of 201.6 is the level
behind every 2006 figure on this page.
Inflation was 3.2% in 2006 and gasoline averaged $2.59 a gallon, up 29 cents from 2005. The
median household earned about $48,200 and the median new home cost $246,500, a gain of about
2% after a 13% jump in 2004 and 9% in 2005. National home prices, by the S&P/Case-Shiller
index, peaked in mid-2006. Ben Bernanke replaced Alan Greenspan as Federal Reserve chair on
February 1, and on June 29 the Fed raised its policy rate to 5.25%, the last of 17 straight
quarter-point increases. It held there for over a year. A first-class stamp rose to 39 cents in
January, and the federal minimum wage was $5.15 for the ninth full year in a row.
MLA: “Inflation from 1971 to 2006: $100 is worth $498 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1971-to-2006/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1971 to 2006. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1971-to-2006/