$100 in 1971 is worth $593 in 2016,
because prices increased 492.6% over that period, an average of
4.03% a year.
$100 in 1971 has
the same buying power as
$593
in 2016
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
492.6%
Average inflation rate
4.03% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$593
Price difference ($100 base)
$493
CPI in 1971
40.5
CPI in 2016
240.007
Inflation in 1971
4.38%
Inflation in 2016
1.26%
$100 in 1971 → 2016
$593
$100 in 2016 → 1971
$16.87
What happened to prices between 1971 and 2016
Between 1971 and 2016, the Consumer Price Index went from 40.5 to 240.007.
Cumulatively, prices increased 492.6%, which works out to an average of
4.03% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1971 bought what
$0.17 buys in 2016: the 1971 dollar
lost 83.1% of its purchasing power over
these 45 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 2016 at the same ratio, 5.93: $1,000 becomes
$5,926, and $10,000 becomes $59,261.
Amount in 1971
Value in 2016
$1.00
$5.93
$5.00
$29.63
$10.00
$59.26
$20.00
$119
$50.00
$296
$100
$593
$500
$2,963
$1,000
$5,926
$5,000
$29,630
$10,000
$59,261
$100,000
$592,610
$1,000,000
$5,926,099
Inflation by spending category, 1971–2016
Between 1971 and 2016, medical care rose the most, up 1184.4%, while apparel rose the least, up 106.3%, against 492.6% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1971
spending costs in 2016, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1971 →
All items (CPI-U)
4.03%
$593
Medical care
5.84%
$1,284
Energy
4.47%
$715
Housing
4.22%
$642
Food
4.11%
$614
Core (all items less food & energy)
3.98%
$580
Transportation
3.61%
$493
Apparel
1.62%
$206
Not shown because the BLS began these indexes after 1971: recreation (1993–), education & communication (1993–).
Decade by decade: 1971 to 2016
Prices climbed fastest in the 1970s, averaging 8.21% a year, and slowest in the 2010s (1.61% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1971–2016 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
2010–2016
1.61%
10.1%
$593
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1971
$100 from 1971 had already become $357 by
1993, on its way to $593 in 2016; 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: 2016
In 2016, prices rose 1.3% and $100 from 1971 had the buying
power of $593; the year's average CPI of 240.007 is the level
behind every 2016 figure on this page.
2016 opened with the cheapest oil in more than a decade and closed with a
change in political direction. Crude fell to about $26 a barrel in February,
and gasoline averaged $2.14 a gallon for the year, its lowest annual
average since 2004. Headline inflation was 1.3%, a modest rebound from 2015’s
0.1%, though prices excluding food and energy rose faster, driven by rents and
health care.
Median household income rose to $59,039, the second large gain in a row, and
the median new home sold for about $307,800. The federal minimum wage held at
$7.25, and a first-class stamp fell to 47 cents after a January rate cut, a
rare decrease.
Two votes changed the outlook. Britain’s June decision to leave the European
Union unsettled currency markets, and the U.S. election in November raised
expectations of tax cuts, deficits, and faster growth, sending long-term
interest rates higher. OPEC’s November output cut ended the oil slump, and the
Federal Reserve made its second rate increase in December, to 0.50–0.75%.
MLA: “Inflation from 1971 to 2016: $100 is worth $593 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1971-to-2016/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1971 to 2016. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1971-to-2016/