$100 in 1929 is worth $244 in 1972,
because prices increased 144.4% over that period, an average of
2.10% a year.
$100 in 1929 has
the same buying power as
$244
in 1972
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
144.4%
Average inflation rate
2.10% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$244
Price difference ($100 base)
$144
CPI in 1929
17.1
CPI in 1972
41.8
Inflation in 1929
0.00%
Inflation in 1972
3.21%
$100 in 1929 → 1972
$244
$100 in 1972 → 1929
$40.91
What happened to prices between 1929 and 1972
Between 1929 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
2.10% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1929 bought what
$0.41 buys in 1972: the 1929 dollar
lost 59.1% of its purchasing power over
these 43 years.
Consumer prices were unchanged in 1929, the CPI’s annual average flat for
the second time in six years and a fitting close to a decade that began with
wartime inflation and ended in rough price stability. By year’s end the
index stood 14.5% below its 1920 peak and roughly 73% above its
1913 starting point, a reminder that even a “stable” decade
left prices well above where they had started. The stability in the cost of
living masked what was building in financial markets. The National Bureau
of Economic Research dates the start of the Great Depression to that
August, the month the business cycle peaked, months before most Americans
noticed anything was wrong. The break came that October: panic selling hit
Wall Street on Black Thursday, October 24, and returned even worse on Black
Tuesday, October 29, when the Dow Jones Industrial Average fell about 12% in
a single session. Billions of dollars in paper wealth disappeared within
days, and the crash marked the start of a downturn that would pull consumer
prices into their steepest sustained decline of the 20th century over the
next four years. First-class postage was still 2 cents, a price that would
hold until 1932.
Every 1929 amount converts to 1972 at the same ratio, 2.44: $1,000 becomes
$2,444, and $10,000 becomes $24,444.
Amount in 1929
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, 1929–1972
Between 1929 and 1972, food rose the most, up 155.2%, while apparel rose the least, up 152.2%, against 144.4% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1929
spending costs in 1972, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1929 →
All items (CPI-U)
2.10%
$244
Food
2.20%
$255
Apparel
2.17%
$252
Not shown because the BLS began these indexes after 1929: core (all items less food & energy) (1957–), energy (1957–), housing (1967–), medical care (1935–), transportation (1935–), recreation (1993–), education & communication (1993–).
Decade by decade: 1929 to 1972
Prices climbed fastest in the 1940s, averaging 5.58% a year, and fell in the 1920s (2.3% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1929–1972 change:
Years
Avg. yearly inflation
Price change
$100 from 1929, at end
1929–1930
-2.34%
-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 1929
$100 from 1929 had already become $152 by
1951, 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 1929 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 1929 to 1972: $100 is worth $244 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1929-to-1972/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1929 to 1972. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1929-to-1972/