$100 in 1971 is worth $605 in 2017,
because prices increased 505.2% over that period, an average of
3.99% a year.
$100 in 1971 has
the same buying power as
$605
in 2017
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
505.2%
Average inflation rate
3.99% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$605
Price difference ($100 base)
$505
CPI in 1971
40.5
CPI in 2017
245.12
Inflation in 1971
4.38%
Inflation in 2017
2.13%
$100 in 1971 → 2017
$605
$100 in 2017 → 1971
$16.52
What happened to prices between 1971 and 2017
Between 1971 and 2017, the Consumer Price Index went from 40.5 to 245.12.
Cumulatively, prices increased 505.2%, which works out to an average of
3.99% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1971 bought what
$0.17 buys in 2017: the 1971 dollar
lost 83.5% of its purchasing power over
these 46 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 2017 at the same ratio, 6.05: $1,000 becomes
$6,052, and $10,000 becomes $60,523.
Amount in 1971
Value in 2017
$1.00
$6.05
$5.00
$30.26
$10.00
$60.52
$20.00
$121
$50.00
$303
$100
$605
$500
$3,026
$1,000
$6,052
$5,000
$30,262
$10,000
$60,523
$100,000
$605,235
$1,000,000
$6,052,346
Inflation by spending category, 1971–2017
Between 1971 and 2017, medical care rose the most, up 1216.7%, while apparel rose the least, up 105.6%, against 505.2% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1971
spending costs in 2017, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1971 →
All items (CPI-U)
3.99%
$605
Medical care
5.76%
$1,317
Energy
4.54%
$772
Housing
4.19%
$661
Food
4.04%
$619
Core (all items less food & energy)
3.94%
$591
Transportation
3.61%
$510
Apparel
1.58%
$206
Not shown because the BLS began these indexes after 1971: recreation (1993–), education & communication (1993–).
Decade by decade: 1971 to 2017
Prices climbed fastest in the 1970s, averaging 8.21% a year, and slowest in the 2010s (1.69% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1971–2017 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
2010–2017
1.69%
12.4%
$605
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1971
$100 from 1971 had already become $357 by
1993, on its way to $605 in 2017; 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: 2017
In 2017, prices rose 2.1% and $100 from 1971 had the buying
power of $605; the year's average CPI of 245.12 is the level
behind every 2017 figure on this page.
2017 pushed consumer prices back above the Federal Reserve’s 2% target. The
CPI rose 2.1%, the first reading over 2% in five years, helped by a rebound
in energy after OPEC’s output cuts and by a storm-related spike at the pump:
Hurricane Harvey shut a large part of Gulf Coast refining in late August.
Gasoline averaged $2.42 a gallon, up from $2.14 in 2016.
Household incomes kept rising. The median household income reached $61,372,
and the median new home sold for about $322,100. The federal minimum wage
stayed at $7.25, its eighth year at that level, and a first-class stamp rose
to 49 cents.
The Fed raised rates three times, to 1.25–1.50%, and in October began
letting its bond holdings shrink. Congress passed the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act
in December, lowering the corporate rate to 21%. Even with unemployment near
4%, core inflation stayed under 2%, a puzzle that shaped Fed debates for the
next two years.
MLA: “Inflation from 1971 to 2017: $100 is worth $605 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1971-to-2017/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1971 to 2017. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1971-to-2017/