$100 in 1971 is worth $585 in 2015,
because prices increased 485.2% over that period, an average of
4.10% a year.
$100 in 1971 has
the same buying power as
$585
in 2015
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
485.2%
Average inflation rate
4.10% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$585
Price difference ($100 base)
$485
CPI in 1971
40.5
CPI in 2015
237.017
Inflation in 1971
4.38%
Inflation in 2015
0.12%
$100 in 1971 → 2015
$585
$100 in 2015 → 1971
$17.09
What happened to prices between 1971 and 2015
Between 1971 and 2015, the Consumer Price Index went from 40.5 to 237.017.
Cumulatively, prices increased 485.2%, which works out to an average of
4.10% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1971 bought what
$0.17 buys in 2015: the 1971 dollar
lost 82.9% of its purchasing power over
these 44 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 2015 at the same ratio, 5.85: $1,000 becomes
$5,852, and $10,000 becomes $58,523.
Amount in 1971
Value in 2015
$1.00
$5.85
$5.00
$29.26
$10.00
$58.52
$20.00
$117
$50.00
$293
$100
$585
$500
$2,926
$1,000
$5,852
$5,000
$29,261
$10,000
$58,523
$100,000
$585,227
$1,000,000
$5,852,272
Inflation by spending category, 1971–2015
Between 1971 and 2015, medical care rose the most, up 1137.5%, while apparel rose the least, up 106.1%, against 485.2% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1971
spending costs in 2015, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1971 →
All items (CPI-U)
4.10%
$585
Medical care
5.88%
$1,238
Energy
4.73%
$766
Housing
4.26%
$626
Food
4.20%
$612
Core (all items less food & energy)
4.02%
$567
Transportation
3.74%
$504
Apparel
1.66%
$206
Not shown because the BLS began these indexes after 1971: recreation (1993–), education & communication (1993–).
Decade by decade: 1971 to 2015
Prices climbed fastest in the 1970s, averaging 8.21% a year, and slowest in the 2010s (1.68% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1971–2015 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
2010–2015
1.68%
8.7%
$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 2015; 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: 2015
In 2015, prices rose 0.1% and $100 from 1971 had the buying
power of $585; the year's average CPI of 237.017 is the level
behind every 2015 figure on this page.
2015 was almost a year with no inflation at all. Consumer prices rose 0.1%,
the smallest increase since the 2009 decline, because energy prices kept
falling. Gasoline averaged $2.45 a gallon, down from $3.37 in 2014, and a
strong dollar made imported goods cheaper. The picture was different outside
food and energy: core prices rose about 1.8% as rents and medical costs
climbed.
Incomes finally showed real progress. Median household income reached $56,516,
a large jump from $53,657, and the median new home sold for about $296,400. The
federal minimum wage stayed at $7.25, and a first-class stamp stayed at 49
cents.
The Federal Reserve chose December to end its zero-rate policy, raising the
target range to 0.25–0.50% for the first time since 2006. It moved even
though headline inflation was far under 2%, arguing that the drag from
energy was temporary. Earlier, a currency shift in China in August had shaken
global markets and pushed oil below $40 a barrel. Prices in 2015 ended
the year barely above their 2014 level.
MLA: “Inflation from 1971 to 2015: $100 is worth $585 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1971-to-2015/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1971 to 2015. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1971-to-2015/