$100 in 1971 is worth $752 in 2023,
because prices increased 652.4% over that period, an average of
3.96% a year.
$100 in 1971 has
the same buying power as
$752
in 2023
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
652.4%
Average inflation rate
3.96% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$752
Price difference ($100 base)
$652
CPI in 1971
40.5
CPI in 2023
304.702
Inflation in 1971
4.38%
Inflation in 2023
4.12%
$100 in 1971 → 2023
$752
$100 in 2023 → 1971
$13.29
What happened to prices between 1971 and 2023
Between 1971 and 2023, the Consumer Price Index went from 40.5 to 304.702.
Cumulatively, prices increased 652.4%, which works out to an average of
3.96% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1971 bought what
$0.13 buys in 2023: the 1971 dollar
lost 86.7% of its purchasing power over
these 52 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 2023 at the same ratio, 7.52: $1,000 becomes
$7,524, and $10,000 becomes $75,235.
Amount in 1971
Value in 2023
$1.00
$7.52
$5.00
$37.62
$10.00
$75.24
$20.00
$150
$50.00
$376
$100
$752
$500
$3,762
$1,000
$7,524
$5,000
$37,618
$10,000
$75,235
$100,000
$752,351
$1,000,000
$7,523,506
Inflation by spending category, 1971–2023
Between 1971 and 2023, medical care rose the most, up 1421.0%, while apparel rose the least, up 113.7%, against 652.4% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1971
spending costs in 2023, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1971 →
All items (CPI-U)
3.96%
$752
Medical care
5.37%
$1,521
Energy
4.66%
$1,069
Housing
4.18%
$843
Food
4.08%
$799
Core (all items less food & energy)
3.88%
$722
Transportation
3.74%
$676
Apparel
1.47%
$214
Not shown because the BLS began these indexes after 1971: recreation (1993–), education & communication (1993–).
Decade by decade: 1971 to 2023
Prices climbed fastest in the 1970s, averaging 8.21% a year, and slowest in the 2010s (1.73% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1971–2023 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
2010–2020
1.73%
18.7%
$639
2020–2023
5.59%
17.7%
$752
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1971
$100 from 1971 had already become $396 by
1997, on its way to $752 in 2023; 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: 2023
In 2023, prices rose 4.1% and $100 from 1971 had the buying
power of $752; the year's average CPI of 304.702 is the level
behind every 2023 figure on this page.
2023 was the year inflation came down without a recession. Consumer prices
rose 4.1% on average, roughly half of 2022’s 8.0%, and the December-to-December
rate fell to 3.4%. Gasoline averaged $3.52 a gallon, well below the 2022
average, and supply-chain pressure on goods eased. Shelter, restaurant meals,
and other services stayed expensive, so the CPI kept rising at a rate well
above the pre-pandemic pace.
The Federal Reserve completed its rate-hiking campaign in July, taking the
policy rate to 5.25–5.50%, the highest level in 22 years. The effects showed
up in banking: Silicon Valley Bank failed in March after rate increases eroded
the value of its bond portfolio, the second-largest bank failure in U.S.
history at the time. Despite that, unemployment stayed under 4% all year.
Median household income was $80,610 according to the Census Bureau. The
federal minimum wage stayed at $7.25, and a first-class stamp rose to 66 cents
in July.
MLA: “Inflation from 1971 to 2023: $100 is worth $752 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1971-to-2023/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1971 to 2023. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1971-to-2023/