$100 in 1927 is worth $240 in 1972,
because prices increased 140.2% over that period, an average of
1.97% a year.
$100 in 1927 has
the same buying power as
$240
in 1972
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
140.2%
Average inflation rate
1.97% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$240
Price difference ($100 base)
$140
CPI in 1927
17.4
CPI in 1972
41.8
Inflation in 1927
-1.69%
Inflation in 1972
3.21%
$100 in 1927 → 1972
$240
$100 in 1972 → 1927
$41.63
What happened to prices between 1927 and 1972
Between 1927 and 1972, the Consumer Price Index went from 17.4 to 41.8.
Cumulatively, prices increased 140.2%, which works out to an average of
1.97% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1927 bought what
$0.42 buys in 1972: the 1927 dollar
lost 58.4% of its purchasing power over
these 45 years.
Consumer prices fell 1.7% in 1927, a mild retreat after three years of
gradual increases and part of a shallow up-and-down pattern that ran through
the second half of the decade. Aviation delivered the year’s signature
moment: Charles Lindbergh departed Roosevelt Field, New York, on May 20 and
landed at Le Bourget Field outside Paris roughly 33.5 hours later, the first
person to fly the Atlantic solo and nonstop. Detroit closed a chapter of its
own that May, when Ford halted the Model T’s production line after nearly 19
years and more than 15 million cars sold, idling tens of thousands of
workers while its factories retooled for the Model A. The Federal Reserve,
meeting with European central bankers that summer, cut its discount rate to
ease pressure on currencies still recovering from the war, a move later
cited by economists including Milton Friedman and Anna Schwartz as fuel for
the stock market speculation that built through the following two years.
First-class postage held at 2 cents.
Every 1927 amount converts to 1972 at the same ratio, 2.40: $1,000 becomes
$2,402, and $10,000 becomes $24,023.
Amount in 1927
Value in 1972
$1.00
$2.40
$5.00
$12.01
$10.00
$24.02
$20.00
$48.05
$50.00
$120
$100
$240
$500
$1,201
$1,000
$2,402
$5,000
$12,011
$10,000
$24,023
$100,000
$240,230
$1,000,000
$2,402,299
Inflation by spending category, 1927–1972
Between 1927 and 1972, food rose the most, up 156.7%, while apparel rose the least, up 146.2%, against 140.2% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1927
spending costs in 1972, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1927 →
All items (CPI-U)
1.97%
$240
Food
2.12%
$257
Apparel
2.02%
$246
Not shown because the BLS began these indexes after 1927: core (all items less food & energy) (1957–), energy (1957–), housing (1967–), medical care (1935–), transportation (1935–), recreation (1993–), education & communication (1993–).
Decade by decade: 1927 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 1927–1972 change:
Years
Avg. yearly inflation
Price change
$100 from 1927, at end
1927–1930
-1.36%
-4.0%
$95.98
1930–1940
-1.75%
-16.2%
$80.46
1940–1950
5.58%
72.1%
$139
1950–1960
2.08%
22.8%
$170
1960–1970
2.74%
31.1%
$223
1970–1972
3.79%
7.7%
$240
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1927
$100 from 1927 had already become $137 by
1949, on its way to $240 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 1927 had the buying
power of $240; 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 1927 to 1972: $100 is worth $240 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1927-to-1972/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1927 to 1972. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1927-to-1972/