$100 in 1948 is worth $173 in 1972,
because prices increased 73.4% over that period, an average of
2.32% a year.
$100 in 1948 has
the same buying power as
$173
in 1972
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
73.4%
Average inflation rate
2.32% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$173
Price difference ($100 base)
$73.44
CPI in 1948
24.1
CPI in 1972
41.8
Inflation in 1948
8.07%
Inflation in 1972
3.21%
$100 in 1948 → 1972
$173
$100 in 1972 → 1948
$57.66
What happened to prices between 1948 and 1972
Between 1948 and 1972, the Consumer Price Index went from 24.1 to 41.8.
Cumulatively, prices increased 73.4%, which works out to an average of
2.32% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1948 bought what
$0.58 buys in 1972: the 1948 dollar
lost 42.3% of its purchasing power over
these 24 years.
Consumer prices rose 8.1% in 1948, down slightly from 1947’s
14.4% but still the second straight year of sharp postwar inflation now
that wartime price controls were fully gone. Congress moved to stabilize a
different economy that April, passing the Economic Cooperation Act to fund
the plan Secretary of State George Marshall had proposed the year before:
more than $13 billion over four years to rebuild Western Europe and counter
Soviet influence. The Cold War turned tense closer to the plan’s target
that June, when Soviet forces cut off road and rail access to the
Western-controlled sectors of Berlin. American and British aircraft
responded almost immediately with an airlift of food, fuel, and supplies
that would keep the city running for nearly a year. Domestic politics
produced its own upset that November: nearly every poll and pundit had
predicted a Republican win, but Harry Truman defeated New York Governor
Thomas Dewey, handing the Chicago Tribune its famously wrong “Dewey Defeats
Truman” headline. Consumer prices finished the year 143.4% above their
1913 level and 40.9% above 1929’s
pre-Depression peak. First-class postage held at 3 cents, and the minimum
wage stayed at 40 cents an hour.
Every 1948 amount converts to 1972 at the same ratio, 1.73: $1,000 becomes
$1,734, and $10,000 becomes $17,344.
Amount in 1948
Value in 1972
$1.00
$1.73
$5.00
$8.67
$10.00
$17.34
$20.00
$34.69
$50.00
$86.72
$100
$173
$500
$867
$1,000
$1,734
$5,000
$8,672
$10,000
$17,344
$100,000
$173,444
$1,000,000
$1,734,440
Inflation by spending category, 1948–1972
Between 1948 and 1972, medical care rose the most, up 159.0%, while apparel rose the least, up 46.6%, against 73.4% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1948
spending costs in 1972, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1948 →
All items (CPI-U)
2.32%
$173
Medical care
4.05%
$259
Transportation
2.79%
$194
Food
2.01%
$161
Apparel
1.61%
$147
Not shown because the BLS began these indexes after 1948: core (all items less food & energy) (1957–), energy (1957–), housing (1967–), recreation (1993–), education & communication (1993–).
Decade by decade: 1948 to 1972
Prices climbed fastest in the 1970s, averaging 3.79% a year, and slowest in the 1940s (0.00% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1948–1972 change:
Years
Avg. yearly inflation
Price change
$100 from 1948, at end
1948–1950
0.00%
0.0%
$100
1950–1960
2.08%
22.8%
$123
1960–1970
2.74%
31.1%
$161
1970–1972
3.79%
7.7%
$173
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1948
$100 from 1948 had already become $123 by
1960, on its way to $173 in 1972; each row shows the CPI, that
year's inflation rate, and the running value.
Within the span, inflation peaked at 7.9% in 1951, and prices fell 1.2% in 1949, the deepest deflation of the period.
In 1972, prices rose 3.2% and $100 from 1948 had the buying
power of $173; 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 1948 to 1972: $100 is worth $173 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1948-to-1972/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1948 to 1972. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1948-to-1972/