$100 in 1944 is worth $237 in 1972,
because prices increased 137.5% over that period, an average of
3.14% a year.
$100 in 1944 has
the same buying power as
$237
in 1972
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
137.5%
Average inflation rate
3.14% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$237
Price difference ($100 base)
$137
CPI in 1944
17.6
CPI in 1972
41.8
Inflation in 1944
1.73%
Inflation in 1972
3.21%
$100 in 1944 → 1972
$237
$100 in 1972 → 1944
$42.11
What happened to prices between 1944 and 1972
Between 1944 and 1972, the Consumer Price Index went from 17.6 to 41.8.
Cumulatively, prices increased 137.5%, which works out to an average of
3.14% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1944 bought what
$0.42 buys in 1972: the 1944 dollar
lost 57.9% of its purchasing power over
these 28 years.
Consumer prices rose just 1.7% in 1944, down from 1943’s
6.1% and the slowest increase of the war years, as price and wage controls
held the cost of living nearly flat even as the conflict reached its most
expensive phase. The war itself turned decisively that June, when more than
150,000 Allied troops landed on the beaches of Normandy, France, opening the
long-planned second front against Nazi Germany. Congress used the same
month to plan for the war’s end, passing the GI Bill on June 22 to give
returning veterans money for college or vocational training, low-cost home
and business loans, and unemployment benefits, a package that would reshape
American housing and higher education for a generation. The following
month, delegates from 44 Allied nations gathered at Bretton Woods, New
Hampshire, and agreed to peg their currencies to the U.S. dollar, itself
pegged to gold, creating the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank
to manage the new system. Consumer prices stood 77.8% above their
1913 level, a cumulative wartime rise held down by controls
that would start unwinding the following year. First-class postage held at
3 cents, and the minimum wage stayed at 30 cents an hour.
Every 1944 amount converts to 1972 at the same ratio, 2.37: $1,000 becomes
$2,375, and $10,000 becomes $23,750.
Amount in 1944
Value in 1972
$1.00
$2.37
$5.00
$11.87
$10.00
$23.75
$20.00
$47.50
$50.00
$119
$100
$237
$500
$1,187
$1,000
$2,375
$5,000
$11,875
$10,000
$23,750
$100,000
$237,500
$1,000,000
$2,375,000
Inflation by spending category, 1944–1972
Between 1944 and 1972, medical care rose the most, up 221.6%, while apparel rose the least, up 109.1%, against 137.5% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1944
spending costs in 1972, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1944 →
All items (CPI-U)
3.14%
$237
Medical care
4.26%
$322
Transportation
3.34%
$251
Food
3.31%
$249
Apparel
2.67%
$209
Not shown because the BLS began these indexes after 1944: core (all items less food & energy) (1957–), energy (1957–), housing (1967–), recreation (1993–), education & communication (1993–).
Decade by decade: 1944 to 1972
Prices climbed fastest in the 1940s, averaging 5.38% a year, and slowest in the 1950s (2.08% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1944–1972 change:
Years
Avg. yearly inflation
Price change
$100 from 1944, at end
1944–1950
5.38%
36.9%
$137
1950–1960
2.08%
22.8%
$168
1960–1970
2.74%
31.1%
$220
1970–1972
3.79%
7.7%
$237
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1944
$100 from 1944 had already become $164 by
1958, on its way to $237 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 1.2% in 1949, the deepest deflation of the period.
In 1972, prices rose 3.2% and $100 from 1944 had the buying
power of $237; 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 1944 to 1972: $100 is worth $237 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1944-to-1972/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1944 to 1972. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1944-to-1972/