$100 in 1914 is worth $418 in 1972,
because prices increased 318.0% over that period, an average of
2.50% a year.
$100 in 1914 has
the same buying power as
$418
in 1972
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
318.0%
Average inflation rate
2.50% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$418
Price difference ($100 base)
$318
CPI in 1914
10
CPI in 1972
41.8
Inflation in 1914
1.01%
Inflation in 1972
3.21%
$100 in 1914 → 1972
$418
$100 in 1972 → 1914
$23.92
What happened to prices between 1914 and 1972
Between 1914 and 1972, the Consumer Price Index went from 10 to 41.8.
Cumulatively, prices increased 318.0%, which works out to an average of
2.50% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1914 bought what
$0.24 buys in 1972: the 1914 dollar
lost 76.1% of its purchasing power over
these 58 years.
Consumer prices barely moved in 1914, rising just 1.0% for the year, even as
the country’s financial plumbing was rebuilt from the ground up. The Federal
Reserve Banks, created by the Federal Reserve Act signed the previous
December, opened their doors on November 16, giving the U.S. a central bank
for the first time since the 1830s. Weeks earlier, the outbreak of war in
Europe had spooked the New York Stock Exchange into closing for more than
four months, the longest shutdown in its history, as officials worried
European investors would dump American securities for gold. Domestically, the
bigger story was labor: Henry Ford’s decision to pay factory workers $5 a
day, announced in January, roughly doubled wages on his assembly lines and
pushed other manufacturers to raise pay just to keep workers from leaving. A
first-class stamp still cost 2 cents, a price that had held since 1885 and
would keep holding for three more years, even as the war reshaping Europe
began pulling the American economy toward the sustained wartime inflation of
1917.
Every 1914 amount converts to 1972 at the same ratio, 4.18: $1,000 becomes
$4,180, and $10,000 becomes $41,800.
Amount in 1914
Value in 1972
$1.00
$4.18
$5.00
$20.90
$10.00
$41.80
$20.00
$83.60
$50.00
$209
$100
$418
$500
$2,090
$1,000
$4,180
$5,000
$20,900
$10,000
$41,800
$100,000
$418,000
$1,000,000
$4,180,000
Inflation by spending category, 1914–1972
Between 1914 and 1972, apparel rose the most, up 315.3%, while food rose the least, up 312.7%, against 318.0% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1914
spending costs in 1972, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1914 →
All items (CPI-U)
2.50%
$418
Apparel
2.49%
$415
Food
2.47%
$413
Not shown because the BLS began these indexes after 1914: core (all items less food & energy) (1957–), energy (1957–), housing (1967–), medical care (1935–), transportation (1935–), recreation (1993–), education & communication (1993–).
Decade by decade: 1914 to 1972
Prices climbed fastest in the 1910s, averaging 12.25% a year, and fell in the 1920s (1.8% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1914–1972 change:
Years
Avg. yearly inflation
Price change
$100 from 1914, at end
1914–1920
12.25%
100.0%
$200
1920–1930
-1.79%
-16.5%
$167
1930–1940
-1.75%
-16.2%
$140
1940–1950
5.58%
72.1%
$241
1950–1960
2.08%
22.8%
$296
1960–1970
2.74%
31.1%
$388
1970–1972
3.79%
7.7%
$418
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1914
$100 from 1914 had already become $163 by
1942, on its way to $418 in 1972; each row shows the CPI, that
year's inflation rate, and the running value.
Within the span, inflation peaked at 18.0% in 1918, and prices fell 10.5% in 1921, the deepest deflation of the period.
Long periods are sampled every 2 years; the calculator above covers any pair of years.
The destination year: 1972
In 1972, prices rose 3.2% and $100 from 1914 had the buying
power of $418; the year's average CPI of 41.8 is the level
behind every 1972 figure on this page.
Consumer prices rose just 3.2% in 1972, the calmest year of the decade and a
sharp break from the previous two years. The relief was largely engineered:
Nixon’s wage and price controls, imposed as a 90-day freeze in August 1971,
had settled into a series of “phases” that capped how much businesses could
raise prices through the election year. Economists would later argue the
controls mostly deferred inflation rather than curing it, storing up pressure
that broke loose once they were lifted. Nixon spent political capital on
foreign policy that year, traveling to Beijing that February in the first
visit by a sitting U.S. president to the People’s Republic of China, a trip
that began normalizing relations Washington had frozen since 1949. Closer to
home, five men were arrested breaking into the Democratic National
Committee’s offices at the Watergate complex that June 17, an event that drew
little attention at the time but would eventually force Nixon from office.
None of it dented his re-election bid: Nixon carried 49 states against
Democrat George McGovern that November, helped by an economy that, on paper,
looked more stable than it had in years. A median household earned $9,697 in
1972, a new home sold for a median $27,600, and gas held near 36 cents a
gallon for a third straight year. Consumer prices stood 322.2% above their
1913 level, a lull that would not survive contact with the
controls’ expiration and the oil shock still to come.
MLA: “Inflation from 1914 to 1972: $100 is worth $418 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1914-to-1972/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1914 to 1972. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1914-to-1972/