$100 in 1971 is worth $538 in 2010,
because prices increased 438.4% over that period, an average of
4.41% a year.
$100 in 1971 has
the same buying power as
$538
in 2010
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
438.4%
Average inflation rate
4.41% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$538
Price difference ($100 base)
$438
CPI in 1971
40.5
CPI in 2010
218.056
Inflation in 1971
4.38%
Inflation in 2010
1.64%
$100 in 1971 → 2010
$538
$100 in 2010 → 1971
$18.57
What happened to prices between 1971 and 2010
Between 1971 and 2010, the Consumer Price Index went from 40.5 to 218.056.
Cumulatively, prices increased 438.4%, which works out to an average of
4.41% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1971 bought what
$0.19 buys in 2010: the 1971 dollar
lost 81.4% of its purchasing power over
these 39 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 2010 at the same ratio, 5.38: $1,000 becomes
$5,384, and $10,000 becomes $53,841.
Amount in 1971
Value in 2010
$1.00
$5.38
$5.00
$26.92
$10.00
$53.84
$20.00
$108
$50.00
$269
$100
$538
$500
$2,692
$1,000
$5,384
$5,000
$26,920
$10,000
$53,841
$100,000
$538,410
$1,000,000
$5,384,099
Inflation by spending category, 1971–2010
Between 1971 and 2010, medical care rose the most, up 976.0%, while apparel rose the least, up 95.6%, against 438.4% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1971
spending costs in 2010, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1971 →
All items (CPI-U)
4.41%
$538
Medical care
6.28%
$1,076
Energy
5.47%
$798
Housing
4.56%
$569
Food
4.44%
$544
Core (all items less food & energy)
4.31%
$518
Transportation
4.16%
$490
Apparel
1.73%
$196
Not shown because the BLS began these indexes after 1971: recreation (1993–), education & communication (1993–).
Decade by decade: 1971 to 2010
Prices climbed fastest in the 1970s, averaging 8.21% a year, and slowest in the 2000s (2.39% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1971–2010 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
2000–2010
2.39%
26.6%
$538
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1971
$100 from 1971 had already become $336 by
1991, on its way to $538 in 2010; 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 prices fell 0.4% in 2009, the deepest deflation of the period.
Long periods are sampled every 2 years; the calculator above covers any pair of years.
The destination year: 2010
In 2010, prices rose 1.6% and $100 from 1971 had the buying
power of $538; the year's average CPI of 218.056 is the level
behind every 2010 figure on this page.
2010 was a year of recovery without much price pressure. The CPI rose 1.6%, a
return to growth after 2009’s deflation, with gasoline averaging $2.78 a
gallon as energy prices climbed back from their recession lows. Housing costs
barely moved: millions of foreclosed and vacant homes kept rents soft, and the
median new home sold for about $221,800. The federal minimum wage stayed at
$7.25, the level set in July 2009, and a first-class stamp cost 44 cents.
The Federal Reserve was more worried about too little inflation than too
much. Its policy rate sat at 0–0.25%, and in November it announced a further
$600 billion of Treasury purchases to hold down long-term borrowing costs.
Congress passed the Dodd-Frank Act in July to tighten financial regulation,
while a 110 billion euro rescue of Greece in May showed that the crisis had
moved from American mortgages to European government debt. For anyone
comparing dollars across the decade, 2010 is a useful baseline: prices were
still close to their 2008 levels, and the years ahead brought a slow, steady
climb.
MLA: “Inflation from 1971 to 2010: $100 is worth $538 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1971-to-2010/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1971 to 2010. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1971-to-2010/