Value of a Dollar in 1970
The 1970s are the decade when prices more than doubled: two oil shocks, wage and price controls, and the end of the dollar’s link to gold.
More optionsYear average → today (August 2026)
A month compares month to month, as BLS’s own calculator does.
Worth in
$1 in 1970 is worth
$8.63in August 2026
Prices rose 763.4% in between, so $1 of 1970 goods costs $8.63 in August 2026.
The price of $1 of 1970 goods, year by year
- Total inflation
- +763.4%
- Average a year
- 3.92%
- $1 of cash now buys
- $0.12 of 1970 goods
Official CPI-U data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, through August 2026. These are averages for urban consumers, not advice. Terms
How this works: Method, 8 sources,
How this works
Method
A dollar from 1970 is worth what its goods cost now: the amount × the CPI now ÷ the CPI in 1970. For 1970 the calculator uses BLS’s annual average, the mean of the twelve monthly indexes; pick a month above for a month-to-month figure, which is how BLS’s own CPI Inflation Calculator works. Full method
Sources
- Federal Reserve History, The Great Inflation
- Federal Reserve History, Oil shock of 1973–74
- Federal Reserve History, Oil shock of 1978–79
- BLS, CPI-U all items (CUUR0000SA0)
- BLS, CPI-U all items, seasonally adjusted (CUSR0000SA0)
- BLS, Consumer Price Index data
- BLS, Relative importance of CPI components, December 2025
- BLS, Average hourly earnings, total private (CES0500000003)
Limits
Official CPI-U data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, through August 2026. These are averages for urban consumers, not advice.
Changes
- First version: what a dollar is worth from 1913 to August 2026, your own inflation rate, whether a raise beat inflation, the current rate, the rate by year and 12 year pages.
$1 from 1970, worked out
The CPI-U averaged 38.8 in 1970 and 334.980 in August 2026. Divide the two: 334.980 ÷ 38.8 = 8.634, so $1 of 1970 goods costs $8.63 now. The same factor scales any amount: $1,000 in 1970 is $8,634 today, a total rise of 763% or 3.92% a year over 56 years.
The 1970s: prices more than doubled
Prices rose 112% between 1970 and 1980, about 7.8% a year. The decade had wage and price controls in peacetime, introduced by the Nixon administration in three phases from 1971 to 1974, and the end of the dollar’s link to gold in 1971.
The first oil shock came in October 1973, when Arab oil producers put an embargo on the United States. Their production cuts nearly quadrupled the price of oil, from $2.90 a barrel before the embargo to $11.65 in January 1974. The CPI rose 11.0% in 1974.
The second came with the Iranian revolution: oil prices more than doubled between April 1979 and April 1980. The CPI rose 11.3% in 1979 and 13.5% in 1980. A 1970 dollar had lost more than half its buying power by the end of the decade.
- The Nixon administration introduced wage and price controls in three phases between 1971 and 1974. Source: Federal Reserve History, The Great Inflation.
- The 1973 oil embargo’s production cuts nearly quadrupled the price of oil, from $2.90 a barrel to $11.65 in January 1974. Source: Federal Reserve History, Oil shock of 1973–74.
- Oil prices more than doubled between April 1979 and April 1980. Source: Federal Reserve History, Oil shock of 1978–79.
- The CPI rose 112% from 1970 to 1980. Source: BLS, CPI-U all items (CUUR0000SA0).
How the value of a dollar is worked out
A dollar from 1970 is worth what its goods cost now: the amount × the CPI now ÷ the CPI in 1970. For 1970 the calculator uses BLS’s annual average, the mean of the twelve monthly indexes; pick a month above for a month-to-month figure, which is how BLS’s own CPI Inflation Calculator works.
The index is the CPI-U, all items, U.S. city average, not seasonally adjusted: the series BLS publishes back to 1913. It measures the prices urban consumers pay, so it says what a dollar buys, not what an investment earned.
value now = amount × CPI(August 2026) ÷ CPI(1970)
$1 from 1970 in later years
What $1 of 1970 goods cost in each later year (annual averages), with that year’s inflation; the last row is the latest month.
| Year | CPI-U | $1 from 1970 | Inflation that year |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1970 | 38.8 | $1 | +5.7% |
| 1975 | 53.8 | $1.39 | +9.1% |
| 1980 | 82.4 | $2.12 | +13.5% |
| 1985 | 107.6 | $2.77 | +3.6% |
| 1990 | 130.7 | $3.37 | +5.4% |
| 1995 | 152.4 | $3.93 | +2.8% |
| 2000 | 172.2 | $4.44 | +3.4% |
| 2005 | 195.3 | $5.03 | +3.4% |
| 2010 | 218.056 | $5.62 | +1.6% |
| 2015 | 237.017 | $6.11 | +0.1% |
Show all 13 rowsShow fewer
| 2020 | 258.811 | $6.67 | +1.2% |
| 2025 | 321.943 | $8.30 | +2.6% |
| August 2026 | 334.980 | $8.63 | +3.4% (12 months) |
Data: BLS, CPI-U all items (CUUR0000SA0) · BLS, CPI-U all items, seasonally adjusted (CUSR0000SA0) · BLS, Consumer Price Index data · BLS, Relative importance of CPI components, December 2025 · BLS, Average hourly earnings, total private (CES0500000003). Inflation calculator
Frequently Asked Questions
Why was inflation so high in the 1970s?
Many things at once. Fed chairman Arthur Burns listed the loose financing of the Vietnam War, the dollar’s devaluations in 1971 and 1973, a worldwide boom, crop failures that pushed up food prices, and the oil price increases. The Fed’s historians add that policymakers underestimated their own role in the inflation.
What was $1 from 1970 worth in 1980?
About $2.12. Prices more than doubled in ten years.
Did wage and price controls stop 1970s inflation?
Not for long. The Nixon controls ran in phases from 1971 to 1974, and inflation was 3.2% in 1972, then 6.2% in 1973 and 11.0% in 1974 as they were lifted and the first oil shock hit.