$100 in 1933 is worth $322 in 1972,
because prices increased 221.5% over that period, an average of
3.04% a year.
$100 in 1933 has
the same buying power as
$322
in 1972
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
221.5%
Average inflation rate
3.04% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$322
Price difference ($100 base)
$222
CPI in 1933
13
CPI in 1972
41.8
Inflation in 1933
-5.11%
Inflation in 1972
3.21%
$100 in 1933 → 1972
$322
$100 in 1972 → 1933
$31.10
What happened to prices between 1933 and 1972
Between 1933 and 1972, the Consumer Price Index went from 13 to 41.8.
Cumulatively, prices increased 221.5%, which works out to an average of
3.04% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1933 bought what
$0.31 buys in 1972: the 1933 dollar
lost 68.9% of its purchasing power over
these 39 years.
Consumer prices fell 5.1% in 1933, a smaller decline than 1932’s
but enough to complete a four-year slide of 24.0% from the 1929
peak. The National Bureau of Economic Research dates the trough of that
contraction to March 1933, closing out the longest downturn in its
chronology, one that had run 43 months since August 1929. The bottom
arrived alongside a change in government: Franklin D. Roosevelt was
inaugurated March 4 and, within 48 hours, ordered every bank in the country
closed to halt a fresh round of runs. Congress passed the Emergency Banking
Act on March 9, letting solvent banks reopen under federal supervision, and
the panic that had been building for months broke almost immediately. The
administration moved on the currency next: Executive Order 6102, issued
April 5, required Americans to turn in most gold coin, bullion, and
certificates to the Federal Reserve, taking the country off the domestic
gold standard (formal devaluation of the dollar followed the next January).
Congress capped the year’s banking overhaul in June with the Banking Act of
1933, commonly called Glass-Steagall, which created the Federal Deposit
Insurance Corporation and separated commercial banking from investment
banking. Even after four straight years of falling prices, the CPI still
stood 31.3% above its 1913 level. First-class postage held at
3 cents.
Every 1933 amount converts to 1972 at the same ratio, 3.22: $1,000 becomes
$3,215, and $10,000 becomes $32,154.
Amount in 1933
Value in 1972
$1.00
$3.22
$5.00
$16.08
$10.00
$32.15
$20.00
$64.31
$50.00
$161
$100
$322
$500
$1,608
$1,000
$3,215
$5,000
$16,077
$10,000
$32,154
$100,000
$321,538
$1,000,000
$3,215,385
Inflation by spending category, 1933–1972
Between 1933 and 1972, food rose the most, up 304.8%, while apparel rose the least, up 231.4%, against 221.5% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1933
spending costs in 1972, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1933 →
All items (CPI-U)
3.04%
$322
Food
3.65%
$405
Apparel
3.12%
$331
Not shown because the BLS began these indexes after 1933: core (all items less food & energy) (1957–), energy (1957–), housing (1967–), medical care (1935–), transportation (1935–), recreation (1993–), education & communication (1993–).
Decade by decade: 1933 to 1972
Prices climbed fastest in the 1940s, averaging 5.58% a year, and slowest in the 1930s (1.06% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1933–1972 change:
Years
Avg. yearly inflation
Price change
$100 from 1933, at end
1933–1940
1.06%
7.7%
$108
1940–1950
5.58%
72.1%
$185
1950–1960
2.08%
22.8%
$228
1960–1970
2.74%
31.1%
$298
1970–1972
3.79%
7.7%
$322
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1933
$100 from 1933 had already become $205 by
1953, on its way to $322 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 2.1% in 1938, 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 1933 had the buying
power of $322; 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 1933 to 1972: $100 is worth $322 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1933-to-1972/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1933 to 1972. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1933-to-1972/