$100 in 1971 is worth $631 in 2019,
because prices increased 531.3% over that period, an average of
3.91% a year.
$100 in 1971 has
the same buying power as
$631
in 2019
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
531.3%
Average inflation rate
3.91% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$631
Price difference ($100 base)
$531
CPI in 1971
40.5
CPI in 2019
255.657
Inflation in 1971
4.38%
Inflation in 2019
1.81%
$100 in 1971 → 2019
$631
$100 in 2019 → 1971
$15.84
What happened to prices between 1971 and 2019
Between 1971 and 2019, the Consumer Price Index went from 40.5 to 255.657.
Cumulatively, prices increased 531.3%, which works out to an average of
3.91% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1971 bought what
$0.16 buys in 2019: the 1971 dollar
lost 84.2% of its purchasing power over
these 48 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 2019 at the same ratio, 6.31: $1,000 becomes
$6,313, and $10,000 becomes $63,125.
Amount in 1971
Value in 2019
$1.00
$6.31
$5.00
$31.56
$10.00
$63.13
$20.00
$126
$50.00
$316
$100
$631
$500
$3,156
$1,000
$6,313
$5,000
$31,563
$10,000
$63,125
$100,000
$631,252
$1,000,000
$6,312,519
Inflation by spending category, 1971–2019
Between 1971 and 2019, medical care rose the most, up 1280.6%, while apparel rose the least, up 103.0%, against 531.3% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1971
spending costs in 2019, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1971 →
All items (CPI-U)
3.91%
$631
Medical care
5.62%
$1,381
Energy
4.46%
$812
Housing
4.14%
$700
Food
3.94%
$639
Core (all items less food & energy)
3.86%
$616
Transportation
3.54%
$532
Apparel
1.49%
$203
Not shown because the BLS began these indexes after 1971: recreation (1993–), education & communication (1993–).
Decade by decade: 1971 to 2019
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 1971–2019 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
2010–2019
1.78%
17.2%
$631
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1971
$100 from 1971 had already become $376 by
1995, on its way to $631 in 2019; 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: 2019
In 2019, prices rose 1.8% and $100 from 1971 had the buying
power of $631; the year's average CPI of 255.657 is the level
behind every 2019 figure on this page.
2019 was the last ordinary year before COVID-19. Consumer prices rose 1.8%,
slightly under the Federal Reserve’s 2% target, with gasoline averaging
$2.60 a gallon. Median household income jumped to $68,703, the highest on
record up to that point, and the median new home sold for about $328,000. A
first-class stamp rose to 55 cents.
The Fed reversed course. After four increases in 2018, it cut rates three
times, to 1.50–1.75%, citing slower global growth, trade tensions, and low
inflation. In July the expansion that began in June 2009 became the longest in
U.S. records, and in August the yield curve briefly inverted, a signal
investors read as a recession warning.
For workers at the bottom of the pay scale, 2019 marked a milestone of a
different kind. The federal minimum wage stayed at $7.25 and reached its tenth
year without an increase, the longest gap since the wage was first set. Because
prices had climbed about 19% since it was last raised in 2009, its buying power
was lower than at any point in that span.
MLA: “Inflation from 1971 to 2019: $100 is worth $631 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1971-to-2019/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1971 to 2019. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1971-to-2019/