Consumer prices rose 5.7% in 1970, up from 1969’s 5.5%, extending a run of faster price growth that stretched back to the mid-1960s, even as a recession that began in December 1969 pushed unemployment toward 6%. Prices and joblessness rising together confounded the era’s economic thinking, which held that policymakers could trade a little more inflation for a little less unemployment; 1970 was an early sign that trade-off was breaking down, a pattern that would harden into stagflation later in the decade. Washington restructured how it delivered mail that year: after postal workers staged the first strike ever by federal employees that March, Congress passed the Postal Reorganization Act in August, replacing the cabinet-level Post Office Department with the independent U.S. Postal Service. Environmental policy also took shape in 1970. An estimated 20 million Americans marked the first Earth Day on April 22, and the Environmental Protection Agency opened that December to enforce the Clean Air Act and the pollution rules that followed. The Vietnam War kept dividing the country: on May 4, National Guard troops fired on antiwar demonstrators at Kent State University in Ohio, killing four students and setting off strikes on hundreds of campuses. A median household earned $8,734 that year, a gallon of gas averaged 36 cents, and a first-class stamp cost 6 cents, the rate it had held since 1968. Prices stood 291.9% above their 1913 level by the end of 1970, a milestone that would look almost mild against the decade still to come.
Year in review
Inflation in 1970
The U.S. inflation rate in 1970 was 5.7% (CPI: 38.8). Convert 1970 dollars to today →
5.7% 1970 inflation rate
7.1% 1970s average
6.2% peak month (Jan)
5.4% lowest month (Aug)
What things cost in 1970
| Median household income | $8,734 |
|---|---|
| Gas (per gallon) | $0.36 |
| Median home price | $23,400 |
| First-class stamp | $0.06 |
| Federal minimum wage | $1.60 |
What $100 from 1970 was worth later
| In 1980 | $212 |
|---|---|
| In 1990 | $337 |
| In 2000 | $444 |
| In 2010 | $562 |
| In 2020 | $667 |
| In 2026 | $855 |
Inflation in 1970, month by month
| Month | CPI-U | 12-month rate |
|---|---|---|
| January | 37.8 | 6.2% |
| February | 38 | 6.1% |
| March | 38.2 | 5.8% |
| April | 38.5 | 6.1% |
| May | 38.6 | 6.0% |
| June | 38.8 | 6.0% |
| July | 39 | 6.0% |
| August | 39 | 5.4% |
| September | 39.2 | 5.7% |
| October | 39.4 | 5.6% |
| November | 39.6 | 5.6% |
| December | 39.8 | 5.6% |
Economic events of 1970
- Consumer prices rise 5.7% as inflation and unemployment climb together A recession that began in December 1969 unfolded alongside quickening prices rather than easing them, undercutting the era's assumption that inflation and unemployment moved in opposite directions. Unemployment climbed toward 6% during the year even as the cost of living kept rising.
- The U.S. Postal Service replaces the Post Office Department Congress passed the Postal Reorganization Act that August, converting the cabinet-level Post Office Department into an independent agency. The overhaul followed a nationwide postal workers' strike that March, the first job action ever taken against the federal government by federal employees.
- The first Earth Day launches the modern environmental movement An estimated 20 million Americans took part in events on April 22, 1970, pressing Congress on air and water pollution. The Environmental Protection Agency opened that December to enforce the environmental laws that followed.
- National Guard troops kill four student protesters at Kent State On May 4, guardsmen fired on an antiwar demonstration at Kent State University in Ohio, killing four students and wounding nine. The shootings triggered a wave of campus strikes across the country.
Sources: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Consumer Price Index history; U.S. Census Bureau, Current Population Survey (income); U.S. Census Bureau, New Residential Sales (home price); U.S. Department of Labor (minimum wage); USPS historical rates; National Archives (Postal Reorganization Act; Kent State shootings).
Inflation figures: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, CPI-U annual averages. See the methodology.