Gas Prices in 1971
inflation-adjusted (CPI-U)
How 1971 ranks in the 1970–2025 record
The 34th-most-expensive year on record — the 23rd-cheapest of 56 years.
The 54th-highest pump price on record — before adjusting for inflation.
1971 is an annual-average year
Weekly U.S. data on this site start in 2000.
1971 vs. the years on either side
1971: wage and price controls
The average price rose 1.7% to $0.36 a gallon in 1971, but after adjusting for inflation it fell 2.4%, to $2.89 in 2025 dollars. General prices were rising faster than gasoline.
The main policy event of the year applied to the whole economy. On August 15, 1971, President Nixon announced a 90-day freeze on wages and prices, together with a 10 percent import surcharge and the end of the dollar’s convertibility into gold. The freeze was followed by further phases of controls. Oil and petroleum products stayed under federal price controls in one form or another for the rest of the decade, until the last were removed in January 1981.
The end of gold convertibility also mattered for oil later. Oil was priced in dollars, and as the dollar weakened in 1971 and again in 1973, oil-exporting countries sought higher prices to make up for it, according to the Federal Reserve’s history of the 1973 shock. In 1971 itself, though, the U.S. gasoline price barely moved, and it remained close to its 1970 level in real terms.
Sources: the annual price is the EIA State Energy Data System all-grades U.S. average in our database (approximate before 2000); other facts are from the sources listed here.
1971 Prices Across the States
Among the 56 complete years from 1970 to 2025, 1971 ranks 54th-highest for gasoline at the pump. The U.S. annual average was $0.36 in 1971, the same figure printed for 1970 and for 1972.
Kansas had the cheapest gasoline of any state in 1971 at $0.33, while Hawaii was the most expensive at $0.42. The difference between the highest-priced and lowest-priced state was 9.1¢. Of the 51 states including D.C., 29 of 51 had a 1971 average above the U.S. average on that basis.
From 1971 to 1972 the national average fell 0.7% at the pump, and in constant 2025 dollars it fell 3.8%. The 1971 figure of $2.89 in 2025 dollars compares with $5.08 in 2012, the highest U.S. annual average in constant 2025 dollars from 1970 to 2025.
The national number for years before 2000 comes from the EIA State Energy Data System, covers all grades of motor gasoline with taxes included, and is approximate. The site holds no weekly data for 1971, and the state figures are EIA State Energy Data System annual averages for all grades.
U.S. gas prices in 1971, answered
- What was the average price of gas in 1971?
- The U.S. average price of gasoline (all grades) in 1971 was $0.36 per gallon — about $2.89 in 2025 dollars after adjusting for inflation, according to U.S. Energy Information Administration data.
- How does 1971 rank for gas prices in U.S. history?
- Adjusted for inflation, 1971 was the 34th-most-expensive year for gasoline out of the 56 years on record (1970–2025). In raw at-the-pump dollars it ranks 54th.
- Were gas prices higher in 1971 than in 1970?
- Adjusted for inflation, gasoline (all grades) was cheaper in 1971 than in 1970, down 2.4% year over year ($2.96 → $2.89 in 2025 dollars).
Source: U.S. Energy Information Administration. EIA State Energy Data System, all grades, taxes included (approximate; a different measure from the regular grade used from 2000). Constant 2025 dollars (CPI-U). How the figures are built.
More about 1971
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Download: U.S. national gas prices by year, 1970–present (CSV) · Weekly U.S. national gas prices, 2000–present (CSV).
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Cite as: US Gas Gauge, “Gas Prices in 1971,” usgasgauge.com/gas-prices/history/1971. Source data: U.S. Energy Information Administration.