$100 in 1971 is worth $620 in 2018,
because prices increased 520.0% over that period, an average of
3.96% a year.
$100 in 1971 has
the same buying power as
$620
in 2018
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
520.0%
Average inflation rate
3.96% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$620
Price difference ($100 base)
$520
CPI in 1971
40.5
CPI in 2018
251.107
Inflation in 1971
4.38%
Inflation in 2018
2.44%
$100 in 1971 → 2018
$620
$100 in 2018 → 1971
$16.13
What happened to prices between 1971 and 2018
Between 1971 and 2018, the Consumer Price Index went from 40.5 to 251.107.
Cumulatively, prices increased 520.0%, which works out to an average of
3.96% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1971 bought what
$0.16 buys in 2018: the 1971 dollar
lost 83.9% of its purchasing power over
these 47 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 2018 at the same ratio, 6.20: $1,000 becomes
$6,200, and $10,000 becomes $62,002.
Amount in 1971
Value in 2018
$1.00
$6.20
$5.00
$31.00
$10.00
$62.00
$20.00
$124
$50.00
$310
$100
$620
$500
$3,100
$1,000
$6,200
$5,000
$31,001
$10,000
$62,002
$100,000
$620,017
$1,000,000
$6,200,173
Inflation by spending category, 1971–2018
Between 1971 and 2018, medical care rose the most, up 1242.7%, while apparel rose the least, up 105.7%, against 520.0% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1971
spending costs in 2018, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1971 →
All items (CPI-U)
3.96%
$620
Medical care
5.68%
$1,343
Energy
4.61%
$830
Housing
4.16%
$680
Food
3.99%
$628
Core (all items less food & energy)
3.90%
$603
Transportation
3.63%
$533
Apparel
1.55%
$206
Not shown because the BLS began these indexes after 1971: recreation (1993–), education & communication (1993–).
Decade by decade: 1971 to 2018
Prices climbed fastest in the 1970s, averaging 8.21% a year, and slowest in the 2010s (1.78% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1971–2018 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
2010–2018
1.78%
15.2%
$620
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1971
$100 from 1971 had already become $376 by
1995, on its way to $620 in 2018; 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: 2018
In 2018, prices rose 2.4% and $100 from 1971 had the buying
power of $620; the year's average CPI of 251.107 is the level
behind every 2018 figure on this page.
2018 was the peak of the late-2010s expansion. Consumer prices rose 2.4%,
the fastest since 2011, with gasoline averaging $2.72 a gallon after a summer
high. Unemployment fell to 3.7% in September, the lowest since 1969, and median
household income reached $63,179. The median new home sold for about $331,800,
and a first-class stamp cost 50 cents. The federal minimum wage was still $7.25.
Trade policy became a price factor for the first time in decades. New tariffs
on steel, aluminum, and a growing list of Chinese goods raised costs for
manufacturers and some consumer products, and retaliation cut into exports of
soybeans and other farm goods.
The Federal Reserve, led from February by Jerome Powell, raised rates four
times to 2.25–2.50%. A stock-market drop of nearly 20% in the fourth quarter
led the Fed to signal a pause in early 2019. Oil fell from over $75 a barrel in
October to below $50 by December, which pulled headline inflation lower going
into the next year.
MLA: “Inflation from 1971 to 2018: $100 is worth $620 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1971-to-2018/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1971 to 2018. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1971-to-2018/