$100 in 1945 is worth $232 in 1972,
because prices increased 132.2% over that period, an average of
3.17% a year.
$100 in 1945 has
the same buying power as
$232
in 1972
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
132.2%
Average inflation rate
3.17% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$232
Price difference ($100 base)
$132
CPI in 1945
18
CPI in 1972
41.8
Inflation in 1945
2.27%
Inflation in 1972
3.21%
$100 in 1945 → 1972
$232
$100 in 1972 → 1945
$43.06
What happened to prices between 1945 and 1972
Between 1945 and 1972, the Consumer Price Index went from 18 to 41.8.
Cumulatively, prices increased 132.2%, which works out to an average of
3.17% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1945 bought what
$0.43 buys in 1972: the 1945 dollar
lost 56.9% of its purchasing power over
these 27 years.
Consumer prices rose 2.3% in 1945, up from 1944’s 1.7% but
still modest, a rate that understated how much pressure had built up behind
wartime price and wage controls, which stayed largely in place even as the
conflict that justified them came to a close. The year opened with a shock
at home: Franklin Roosevelt died of a cerebral hemorrhage on April 12, less
than three months into an unprecedented fourth term, and Vice President
Harry Truman was sworn in that same afternoon. The war Roosevelt had led for
nearly four years ended without him. Germany surrendered on May 8, and
Japan surrendered on August 15, after atomic bombs fell on Hiroshima and
Nagasaki that month, with the formal signing aboard the USS Missouri on
September 2. Domestic policy kept moving even as the guns fell silent: the
federal minimum wage rose to 40 cents an hour that October 24, the final
step of the schedule Congress had built into the 1938 Fair Labor Standards
Act, up from 30 cents in 1939 and 25 cents at the law’s start. Consumer
prices stood 81.8% above their 1913 level, a gain that would
look modest next to what followed once wartime controls actually came off.
First-class postage held at 3 cents.
Every 1945 amount converts to 1972 at the same ratio, 2.32: $1,000 becomes
$2,322, and $10,000 becomes $23,222.
Amount in 1945
Value in 1972
$1.00
$2.32
$5.00
$11.61
$10.00
$23.22
$20.00
$46.44
$50.00
$116
$100
$232
$500
$1,161
$1,000
$2,322
$5,000
$11,611
$10,000
$23,222
$100,000
$232,222
$1,000,000
$2,322,222
Inflation by spending category, 1945–1972
Between 1945 and 1972, medical care rose the most, up 213.4%, while apparel rose the least, up 98.4%, against 132.2% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1945
spending costs in 1972, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1945 →
All items (CPI-U)
3.17%
$232
Medical care
4.32%
$313
Transportation
3.47%
$251
Food
3.35%
$243
Apparel
2.57%
$198
Not shown because the BLS began these indexes after 1945: core (all items less food & energy) (1957–), energy (1957–), housing (1967–), recreation (1993–), education & communication (1993–).
Decade by decade: 1945 to 1972
Prices climbed fastest in the 1940s, averaging 6.01% a year, and slowest in the 1950s (2.08% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1945–1972 change:
Years
Avg. yearly inflation
Price change
$100 from 1945, at end
1945–1950
6.01%
33.9%
$134
1950–1960
2.08%
22.8%
$164
1960–1970
2.74%
31.1%
$216
1970–1972
3.79%
7.7%
$232
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1945
$100 from 1945 had already become $161 by
1958, on its way to $232 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 1945 had the buying
power of $232; 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 1945 to 1972: $100 is worth $232 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1945-to-1972/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1945 to 1972. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1945-to-1972/