$100 in 1934 is worth $312 in 1972,
because prices increased 211.9% over that period, an average of
3.04% a year.
$100 in 1934 has
the same buying power as
$312
in 1972
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
211.9%
Average inflation rate
3.04% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$312
Price difference ($100 base)
$212
CPI in 1934
13.4
CPI in 1972
41.8
Inflation in 1934
3.08%
Inflation in 1972
3.21%
$100 in 1934 → 1972
$312
$100 in 1972 → 1934
$32.06
What happened to prices between 1934 and 1972
Between 1934 and 1972, the Consumer Price Index went from 13.4 to 41.8.
Cumulatively, prices increased 211.9%, which works out to an average of
3.04% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1934 bought what
$0.32 buys in 1972: the 1934 dollar
lost 67.9% of its purchasing power over
these 38 years.
Consumer prices rose 3.1% in 1934, the first annual increase since 1926;
every year from 1927 through 1933 had been flat or falling,
so the turn marked a real break after eight years without a single gain.
Currency policy did some of the work. The Gold Reserve Act, signed January
30, formally devalued the dollar by raising the official price of gold from
$20.67 to $35 an ounce, part of the administration’s deliberate effort to
reflate prices after four straight years of deflation. Financial regulation
tightened at the same time: the Securities Exchange Act of June 6 created
the Securities and Exchange Commission to police stock exchanges and enforce
disclosure rules, a direct response to the speculation blamed for the 1929
crash. The recovery was fragile and unevenly felt, especially on the Great
Plains, where drought had turned overplowed farmland to dust. Over May 9-11,
high winds lifted an estimated 350 million tons of topsoil into the air,
darkening skies as far away as Washington and New York and giving city
readers who had never seen a wheat field a first glimpse of the disaster
building in Kansas, Oklahoma, and Texas. Consumer prices stood 35.4% above
their 1913 level, still well below the 1929 peak but rising
for the first time since the Depression began. First-class postage held at
3 cents.
Every 1934 amount converts to 1972 at the same ratio, 3.12: $1,000 becomes
$3,119, and $10,000 becomes $31,194.
Amount in 1934
Value in 1972
$1.00
$3.12
$5.00
$15.60
$10.00
$31.19
$20.00
$62.39
$50.00
$156
$100
$312
$500
$1,560
$1,000
$3,119
$5,000
$15,597
$10,000
$31,194
$100,000
$311,940
$1,000,000
$3,119,403
Inflation by spending category, 1934–1972
Between 1934 and 1972, food rose the most, up 262.9%, while apparel rose the least, up 202.4%, against 211.9% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1934
spending costs in 1972, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1934 →
All items (CPI-U)
3.04%
$312
Food
3.45%
$363
Apparel
2.96%
$302
Not shown because the BLS began these indexes after 1934: core (all items less food & energy) (1957–), energy (1957–), housing (1967–), medical care (1935–), transportation (1935–), recreation (1993–), education & communication (1993–).
Decade by decade: 1934 to 1972
Prices climbed fastest in the 1940s, averaging 5.58% a year, and slowest in the 1930s (0.73% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1934–1972 change:
Years
Avg. yearly inflation
Price change
$100 from 1934, at end
1934–1940
0.73%
4.5%
$104
1940–1950
5.58%
72.1%
$180
1950–1960
2.08%
22.8%
$221
1960–1970
2.74%
31.1%
$290
1970–1972
3.79%
7.7%
$312
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1934
$100 from 1934 had already become $198 by
1952, on its way to $312 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 1934 had the buying
power of $312; 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 1934 to 1972: $100 is worth $312 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1934-to-1972/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1934 to 1972. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1934-to-1972/