$100 in 1932 is worth $305 in 1972,
because prices increased 205.1% over that period, an average of
2.83% a year.
$100 in 1932 has
the same buying power as
$305
in 1972
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
205.1%
Average inflation rate
2.83% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$305
Price difference ($100 base)
$205
CPI in 1932
13.7
CPI in 1972
41.8
Inflation in 1932
-9.87%
Inflation in 1972
3.21%
$100 in 1932 → 1972
$305
$100 in 1972 → 1932
$32.78
What happened to prices between 1932 and 1972
Between 1932 and 1972, the Consumer Price Index went from 13.7 to 41.8.
Cumulatively, prices increased 205.1%, which works out to an average of
2.83% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1932 bought what
$0.33 buys in 1972: the 1932 dollar
lost 67.2% of its purchasing power over
these 40 years.
Consumer prices fell 9.9% in 1932, the steepest single-year drop in the
CPI’s history to that point and the third straight year of decline following
1930 and 1931. Wages, farm incomes, and
industrial output all kept falling, and Congress tried to arrest the credit
collapse by creating the Reconstruction Finance Corporation that January,
capitalized at $500 million with authority to borrow up to $1.5 billion to
lend directly to banks, railroads, and other struggling businesses. Relief
did not reach ordinary households as quickly. That summer, tens of thousands
of World War I veterans and their families camped in Washington demanding
early payment of a service bonus not due until 1945; in July, U.S. Army
troops under General Douglas MacArthur forcibly dispersed the encampment, an
episode that badly damaged the Hoover administration’s standing months
before an election it was already losing. Voters delivered their verdict on
November 8, electing Franklin D. Roosevelt in a landslide over the
incumbent Hoover on a promise of relief and a “new deal for the American
people.” Roosevelt would not take office until the following March, leaving
a long and difficult transition during the depths of the crisis. First-class
postage rose from 2 cents to 3 cents on July 6, the first change to the rate
since 1919.
Every 1932 amount converts to 1972 at the same ratio, 3.05: $1,000 becomes
$3,051, and $10,000 becomes $30,511.
Amount in 1932
Value in 1972
$1.00
$3.05
$5.00
$15.26
$10.00
$30.51
$20.00
$61.02
$50.00
$153
$100
$305
$500
$1,526
$1,000
$3,051
$5,000
$15,255
$10,000
$30,511
$100,000
$305,109
$1,000,000
$3,051,095
Inflation by spending category, 1932–1972
Between 1932 and 1972, food rose the most, up 293.5%, while apparel rose the least, up 219.5%, against 205.1% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1932
spending costs in 1972, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1932 →
All items (CPI-U)
2.83%
$305
Food
3.48%
$393
Apparel
2.95%
$319
Not shown because the BLS began these indexes after 1932: core (all items less food & energy) (1957–), energy (1957–), housing (1967–), medical care (1935–), transportation (1935–), recreation (1993–), education & communication (1993–).
Decade by decade: 1932 to 1972
Prices climbed fastest in the 1940s, averaging 5.58% a year, and slowest in the 1930s (0.27% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1932–1972 change:
Years
Avg. yearly inflation
Price change
$100 from 1932, at end
1932–1940
0.27%
2.2%
$102
1940–1950
5.58%
72.1%
$176
1950–1960
2.08%
22.8%
$216
1960–1970
2.74%
31.1%
$283
1970–1972
3.79%
7.7%
$305
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1932
$100 from 1932 had already become $193 by
1952, on its way to $305 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 5.1% in 1933, 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 1932 had the buying
power of $305; 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 1932 to 1972: $100 is worth $305 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1932-to-1972/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1932 to 1972. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1932-to-1972/