$100 in 1923 is worth $244 in 1972,
because prices increased 144.4% over that period, an average of
1.84% a year.
$100 in 1923 has
the same buying power as
$244
in 1972
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
144.4%
Average inflation rate
1.84% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$244
Price difference ($100 base)
$144
CPI in 1923
17.1
CPI in 1972
41.8
Inflation in 1923
1.79%
Inflation in 1972
3.21%
$100 in 1923 → 1972
$244
$100 in 1972 → 1923
$40.91
What happened to prices between 1923 and 1972
Between 1923 and 1972, the Consumer Price Index went from 17.1 to 41.8.
Cumulatively, prices increased 144.4%, which works out to an average of
1.84% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1923 bought what
$0.41 buys in 1972: the 1923 dollar
lost 59.1% of its purchasing power over
these 49 years.
Consumer prices rose 1.8% in 1923, the first increase since 1920 and a sign
the postwar deflation had run its course; the economy settled into the
steadier growth that defined much of the rest of the decade. The year’s
biggest shock was political rather than economic: Warren Harding died August
2 in San Francisco while returning from a trip to Alaska, and Vice President
Calvin Coolidge was sworn in the next day at his family’s farmhouse in
Plymouth Notch, Vermont, administered the oath of office by his own father,
a notary public, by lamplight. Coolidge would go on to preside over the low,
stable inflation of the “Roaring Twenties.” The contrast with Germany that
year was stark. The Weimar Republic’s currency collapse reached its peak in
November 1923, with prices doubling every few days and a loaf of bread
costing billions of marks; Germany introduced a new currency, the
Rentenmark, that month to halt the spiral. U.S. consumer prices, by
comparison, had moved in single digits or held flat every year since 1921, a
gap that shaped how American economists would later think about what made
the postwar inflation of Europe so different from the mild swings at home.
First-class postage stayed at 2 cents.
Every 1923 amount converts to 1972 at the same ratio, 2.44: $1,000 becomes
$2,444, and $10,000 becomes $24,444.
Amount in 1923
Value in 1972
$1.00
$2.44
$5.00
$12.22
$10.00
$24.44
$20.00
$48.89
$50.00
$122
$100
$244
$500
$1,222
$1,000
$2,444
$5,000
$12,222
$10,000
$24,444
$100,000
$244,444
$1,000,000
$2,444,444
Inflation by spending category, 1923–1972
Between 1923 and 1972, food rose the most, up 173.4%, while apparel rose the least, up 129.9%, against 144.4% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1923
spending costs in 1972, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1923 →
All items (CPI-U)
1.84%
$244
Food
2.07%
$273
Apparel
1.71%
$230
Not shown because the BLS began these indexes after 1923: core (all items less food & energy) (1957–), energy (1957–), housing (1967–), medical care (1935–), transportation (1935–), recreation (1993–), education & communication (1993–).
Decade by decade: 1923 to 1972
Prices climbed fastest in the 1940s, averaging 5.58% a year, and fell in the 1930s (1.7% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1923–1972 change:
Years
Avg. yearly inflation
Price change
$100 from 1923, at end
1923–1930
-0.34%
-2.3%
$97.66
1930–1940
-1.75%
-16.2%
$81.87
1940–1950
5.58%
72.1%
$141
1950–1960
2.08%
22.8%
$173
1960–1970
2.74%
31.1%
$227
1970–1972
3.79%
7.7%
$244
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1923
$100 from 1923 had already become $130 by
1947, on its way to $244 in 1972; each row shows the CPI, that
year's inflation rate, and the running value.
Within the span, inflation peaked at 14.4% in 1947, and prices fell 9.9% in 1932, 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 1923 had the buying
power of $244; 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 1923 to 1972: $100 is worth $244 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1923-to-1972/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1923 to 1972. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1923-to-1972/