$100 in 1971 is worth $585 in 2014,
because prices increased 484.5% over that period, an average of
4.19% a year.
$100 in 1971 has
the same buying power as
$585
in 2014
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
484.5%
Average inflation rate
4.19% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$585
Price difference ($100 base)
$485
CPI in 1971
40.5
CPI in 2014
236.736
Inflation in 1971
4.38%
Inflation in 2014
1.62%
$100 in 1971 → 2014
$585
$100 in 2014 → 1971
$17.11
What happened to prices between 1971 and 2014
Between 1971 and 2014, the Consumer Price Index went from 40.5 to 236.736.
Cumulatively, prices increased 484.5%, which works out to an average of
4.19% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1971 bought what
$0.17 buys in 2014: the 1971 dollar
lost 82.9% of its purchasing power over
these 43 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 2014 at the same ratio, 5.85: $1,000 becomes
$5,845, and $10,000 becomes $58,453.
Amount in 1971
Value in 2014
$1.00
$5.85
$5.00
$29.23
$10.00
$58.45
$20.00
$117
$50.00
$292
$100
$585
$500
$2,923
$1,000
$5,845
$5,000
$29,227
$10,000
$58,453
$100,000
$584,533
$1,000,000
$5,845,333
Inflation by spending category, 1971–2014
Between 1971 and 2014, medical care rose the most, up 1105.8%, while apparel rose the least, up 108.7%, against 484.5% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1971
spending costs in 2014, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1971 →
All items (CPI-U)
4.19%
$585
Medical care
5.96%
$1,206
Energy
5.29%
$919
Housing
4.31%
$614
Food
4.26%
$601
Core (all items less food & energy)
4.08%
$557
Transportation
4.03%
$547
Apparel
1.73%
$209
Not shown because the BLS began these indexes after 1971: recreation (1993–), education & communication (1993–).
Decade by decade: 1971 to 2014
Prices climbed fastest in the 1970s, averaging 8.21% a year, and slowest in the 2010s (2.08% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1971–2014 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
2010–2014
2.08%
8.6%
$585
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1971
$100 from 1971 had already become $357 by
1993, on its way to $585 in 2014; 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: 2014
In 2014, prices rose 1.6% and $100 from 1971 had the buying
power of $585; the year's average CPI of 236.736 is the level
behind every 2014 figure on this page.
2014 ended with the sharpest oil price drop in years. Consumer prices rose
1.6% for the year, close to 2013’s pace, but the annual figure hid a shift at
the pump: crude oil fell from above $100 a barrel in June to below $60 in
December, and gasoline finished the year near $2.25 a gallon after averaging
$3.37 across 2014. The drop reflected record U.S. shale output, softer
global demand, and OPEC’s decision in November to keep producing.
For households, cheaper fuel arrived just as the labor market strengthened.
Median household income was $53,657, essentially flat on the prior year, and
the median new home sold for about $288,500. The federal minimum wage stayed
at $7.25 for a fifth year, and a first-class stamp rose to 49 cents.
The Federal Reserve ended its bond purchases in October but left its policy
rate at zero. A stronger dollar helped hold down import prices. Because
energy weighs heavily in the CPI, the late-year slide carried into 2015, which
posted the smallest annual increase of the decade.
MLA: “Inflation from 1971 to 2014: $100 is worth $585 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1971-to-2014/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1971 to 2014. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1971-to-2014/