$100 in 1919 is worth $242 in 1972,
because prices increased 141.6% over that period, an average of
1.68% a year.
$100 in 1919 has
the same buying power as
$242
in 1972
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
141.6%
Average inflation rate
1.68% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$242
Price difference ($100 base)
$142
CPI in 1919
17.3
CPI in 1972
41.8
Inflation in 1919
14.57%
Inflation in 1972
3.21%
$100 in 1919 → 1972
$242
$100 in 1972 → 1919
$41.39
What happened to prices between 1919 and 1972
Between 1919 and 1972, the Consumer Price Index went from 17.3 to 41.8.
Cumulatively, prices increased 141.6%, which works out to an average of
1.68% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1919 bought what
$0.41 buys in 1972: the 1919 dollar
lost 58.6% of its purchasing power over
these 53 years.
The fighting in Europe ended in November 1918, but American prices kept
climbing through 1919 almost as fast as they had during the war itself,
rising 14.6% for the year. Wartime price and production controls were being
dismantled, millions of soldiers were returning to the civilian labor
market, and demand that had been held back for years ran into supply that
had not caught up, a combination that kept the cost of living rising even
with the guns silent. Workers, whose pay had fallen behind three straight
years of double-digit inflation, pushed back: a general strike shut down
Seattle in February, Boston’s police force walked out in September, and a
nationwide steel strike that same month drew in roughly 350,000 workers and
ran into the following January. One price did fall that year: first-class
postage reverted to 2 cents on July 1, ending the wartime 3-cent rate that
had funded part of the war effort since late 1917. By year’s end, prices had
risen close to 75% since the CPI’s 1913 starting point,
compressing more than a decade of typical peacetime inflation into six years
of war and its aftermath.
Every 1919 amount converts to 1972 at the same ratio, 2.42: $1,000 becomes
$2,416, and $10,000 becomes $24,162.
Amount in 1919
Value in 1972
$1.00
$2.42
$5.00
$12.08
$10.00
$24.16
$20.00
$48.32
$50.00
$121
$100
$242
$500
$1,208
$1,000
$2,416
$5,000
$12,081
$10,000
$24,162
$100,000
$241,618
$1,000,000
$2,416,185
Inflation by spending category, 1919–1972
Between 1919 and 1972, food rose the most, up 126.3%, while apparel rose the least, up 72.1%, against 141.6% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1919
spending costs in 1972, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1919 →
All items (CPI-U)
1.68%
$242
Food
1.55%
$226
Apparel
1.03%
$172
Not shown because the BLS began these indexes after 1919: core (all items less food & energy) (1957–), energy (1957–), housing (1967–), medical care (1935–), transportation (1935–), recreation (1993–), education & communication (1993–).
Decade by decade: 1919 to 1972
Prices climbed fastest in the 1910s, averaging 15.61% a year, and fell in the 1920s (1.8% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1919–1972 change:
Years
Avg. yearly inflation
Price change
$100 from 1919, at end
1919–1920
15.61%
15.6%
$116
1920–1930
-1.79%
-16.5%
$96.53
1930–1940
-1.75%
-16.2%
$80.92
1940–1950
5.58%
72.1%
$139
1950–1960
2.08%
22.8%
$171
1960–1970
2.74%
31.1%
$224
1970–1972
3.79%
7.7%
$242
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1919
$100 from 1919 had already become $104 by
1945, on its way to $242 in 1972; each row shows the CPI, that
year's inflation rate, and the running value.
Within the span, inflation peaked at 15.6% in 1920, 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 1919 had the buying
power of $242; 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 1919 to 1972: $100 is worth $242 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1919-to-1972/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1919 to 1972. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1919-to-1972/