$100 in 1917 is worth $327 in 1972,
because prices increased 226.6% over that period, an average of
2.18% a year.
$100 in 1917 has
the same buying power as
$327
in 1972
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
226.6%
Average inflation rate
2.18% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$327
Price difference ($100 base)
$227
CPI in 1917
12.8
CPI in 1972
41.8
Inflation in 1917
17.43%
Inflation in 1972
3.21%
$100 in 1917 → 1972
$327
$100 in 1972 → 1917
$30.62
What happened to prices between 1917 and 1972
Between 1917 and 1972, the Consumer Price Index went from 12.8 to 41.8.
Cumulatively, prices increased 226.6%, which works out to an average of
2.18% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1917 bought what
$0.31 buys in 1972: the 1917 dollar
lost 69.4% of its purchasing power over
these 55 years.
1917 is when World War I inflation stopped being a background trend and
became the dominant fact of American economic life. Consumer prices rose
17.4% for the year, more than double the previous year’s already sharp
increase, as the country’s April 6 entry into the war layered federal war
spending on top of an economy already strained by military demand and
worker shortages. Congress paid for the war with the War Revenue Act that
October, which sharply raised income taxes, created a new tax on wartime
business profits, and, in a small but very visible change for ordinary
households, raised the cost of a first-class stamp from 2 cents to 3 cents
that November, the rate’s first move since 1885. Herbert Hoover took over
the new Food Administration in August and asked Americans to conserve food
voluntarily rather than face formal rationing, a campaign that became
famous enough that “Hooverize” entered the language as a verb for cutting
back. None of it slowed prices much: the 17.4% increase would be topped
again the very next year, in 1918.
Every 1917 amount converts to 1972 at the same ratio, 3.27: $1,000 becomes
$3,266, and $10,000 becomes $32,656.
Amount in 1917
Value in 1972
$1.00
$3.27
$5.00
$16.33
$10.00
$32.66
$20.00
$65.31
$50.00
$163
$100
$327
$500
$1,633
$1,000
$3,266
$5,000
$16,328
$10,000
$32,656
$100,000
$326,562
$1,000,000
$3,265,625
Inflation by spending category, 1917–1972
Between 1917 and 1972, apparel rose the most, up 208.4%, while food rose the least, up 190.3%, against 226.6% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1917
spending costs in 1972, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1917 →
All items (CPI-U)
2.18%
$327
Apparel
2.07%
$308
Food
1.96%
$290
Not shown because the BLS began these indexes after 1917: core (all items less food & energy) (1957–), energy (1957–), housing (1967–), medical care (1935–), transportation (1935–), recreation (1993–), education & communication (1993–).
Decade by decade: 1917 to 1972
Prices climbed fastest in the 1910s, averaging 16.04% a year, and fell in the 1920s (1.8% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1917–1972 change:
Years
Avg. yearly inflation
Price change
$100 from 1917, at end
1917–1920
16.04%
56.3%
$156
1920–1930
-1.79%
-16.5%
$130
1930–1940
-1.75%
-16.2%
$109
1940–1950
5.58%
72.1%
$188
1950–1960
2.08%
22.8%
$231
1960–1970
2.74%
31.1%
$303
1970–1972
3.79%
7.7%
$327
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1917
$100 from 1917 had already become $141 by
1945, on its way to $327 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 1917 had the buying
power of $327; 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 1917 to 1972: $100 is worth $327 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1917-to-1972/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1917 to 1972. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1917-to-1972/