Value of a dollar in 1970: what it is worth today
One dollar of 1970, at the annual average of the CPI-U, carried to September 2026. Change the amount or the year.
In September 2026 dollars
$868.40
$100.00 at 1970 prices (annual average), U.S. city average.
| Prices since | +768 % |
| Average per year | +3.92 % |
| What $100.00 today buys at 1970 prices | $11.52 |
| Index 1970 | 38.8 |
Prepared by Radif Partners · How the figures are built · CPI-U U.S. city average, 1970 annual average
A dollar of 1970 is worth $8.68 in September 2026, according to the CPI-U for the U.S. city average: the index averaged 38.8 in 1970 and stands at 336.94 today, a rise of 768 % in prices, or 3.92 % a year on average. Put the other way, a dollar today buys what $0.12 bought in 1970. The year itself sat in the middle of a long climb: prices rose 5.5 % in 1969, 5.7 % in 1970 and 4.4 % in 1971, then much faster after the oil shock of 1973, so that by 1980 a 1970 dollar already needed $2.12. Local indexes tell a similar story with their own slope: in the New York area index a 1970 dollar is worth $8.83 today, in the Chicago index $8.06. These figures use annual averages for 1970 and the latest month published for today.
How the figure is computed
The calculator divides the latest index by the 1970 annual average and multiplies by your amount. Using the average rather than one month of 1970 matters little here: the index moved from 37.8 in January to 39.8 in December. For a precise month, the main inflation calculator takes both a year and a month, in any of the areas the BLS published at the time.
In 1970 only a few local indexes existed in their current form. The four regions start in December 1966; most of the large metros, including New York, Chicago, Los Angeles and Boston, go back to 1914. Areas such as Tampa, Phoenix and Riverside start only in the 2000s and 2010s and cannot be used for a 1970 amount.
The 1970s, year by year
The decade that started in 1970 is the one people have in mind when they talk about runaway prices. Annual inflation on the national index was 3.2 % in 1972, 11.0 % in 1974 and 11.3 % in 1979, before peaking at 13.5 % in 1980. Over the ten years from 1970 to 1980 the price level rose 112 %, so a 1970 salary that did not move lost more than half of its buying power by the end of the decade. The inflation rate by year table lists every year since 1914.
Inflation in any year of the 1970s
Inflation in 1974, U.S. average
+11.0 %
| Annual average change | +11.04 % |
| December to December | +12.34 % |
| $100 of 1974 in September 2026 | $683.45 |
What the comparison means for an old amount
A 1970 figure carried to today answers one question: how many of today's dollars buy the same basket of consumption. It is the right tool for a pension or a contract written in 1970 dollars, for a family story about a first salary, or for a price found in an old newspaper. It is a poor tool for comparing the price of one good across time: a television, a car or a phone of 1970 is not the product sold today, and the CPI adjusts for quality changes in ways that a single sticker price does not.
A dollar is not a basket. The CPI of 1970 priced what urban households bought then, and the basket has been revised many times since; what the ratio tells you is how much more money it takes to buy the same standard of consumption, as the BLS measures it, not the price of any single good.
$100 of 1970 in later years
| Year | What $100 of 1970 buys |
|---|---|
| 1980 | $212.37 |
| 1990 | $336.86 |
| 2000 | $443.81 |
| 2010 | $562.00 |
| 2020 | $667.04 |
| September 2026 | $868.40 |
Inflation in 1970, area by area
| Area | 1970 annual average change |
|---|---|
| U.S. average | +5.7 % |
| Northeast | +6.7 % |
| Midwest | +5.4 % |
| South | +5.3 % |
| West | +5.2 % |
| Boston | +6.3 % |
| New York | +7.6 % |
| Philadelphia | +6.8 % |
| Chicago | +5.7 % |
| Detroit | +6.2 % |
| Minneapolis-St. Paul | +6.9 % |
| St. Louis | +5.4 % |
| Washington, DC | +5.6 % |
| Atlanta | +5.8 % |
| Baltimore | +6.0 % |
| Dallas-Fort Worth | +5.9 % |
| Houston | +5.2 % |
| Denver | +7.8 % |
| Los Angeles | +5.2 % |
| San Francisco | +5.3 % |
| Seattle | +4.5 % |
| San Diego | +5.2 % |
| Urban Hawaii | +5.3 % |
| Urban Alaska | +3.8 % |