$100 in 1950 is worth $173 in 1972,
because prices increased 73.4% over that period, an average of
2.53% a year.
$100 in 1950 has
the same buying power as
$173
in 1972
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
73.4%
Average inflation rate
2.53% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$173
Price difference ($100 base)
$73.44
CPI in 1950
24.1
CPI in 1972
41.8
Inflation in 1950
1.26%
Inflation in 1972
3.21%
$100 in 1950 → 1972
$173
$100 in 1972 → 1950
$57.66
What happened to prices between 1950 and 1972
Between 1950 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
2.53% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1950 bought what
$0.58 buys in 1972: the 1950 dollar
lost 42.3% of its purchasing power over
these 22 years.
Consumer prices rose 1.3% in 1950, up from 1949’s 1.2%
decline, a mild gain that hid a sharp turn partway through the year. The
cost of living had been roughly flat through the spring, then jumped after
North Korea invaded South Korea on June 25, setting off a wave of hoarding
and defense buying reminiscent of World War II shortages. The United
States entered the war within days under a United Nations mandate;
American and South Korean forces were pushed back to the Pusan Perimeter
that summer before a landing at Inchon that September reversed the front,
and China’s entry into the war that November turned it into a longer
stalemate. Congress moved to put the economy on a war footing that
September, passing the Defense Production Act, which gave the president
authority to direct industrial output toward the military and, if prices
kept climbing, to impose formal wage and price controls. Domestic policy
also expanded that year: the Social Security Amendments of 1950, signed
August 28, raised benefits across the board and extended coverage to
roughly 10 million more workers, the program’s first major expansion since
it began in 1935. Consumer prices finished 1950 143.4% above their
1913 level, matching 1948’s postwar high
after 1949’s brief decline. First-class postage held at 3 cents, and the
minimum wage stood at 75 cents an hour after January’s increase.
Every 1950 amount converts to 1972 at the same ratio, 1.73: $1,000 becomes
$1,734, and $10,000 becomes $17,344.
Amount in 1950
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, 1950–1972
Between 1950 and 1972, medical care rose the most, up 147.0%, while apparel rose the least, up 54.6%, against 73.4% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1950
spending costs in 1972, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1950 →
All items (CPI-U)
2.53%
$173
Medical care
4.20%
$247
Transportation
2.60%
$176
Food
2.32%
$166
Apparel
2.00%
$155
Not shown because the BLS began these indexes after 1950: core (all items less food & energy) (1957–), energy (1957–), housing (1967–), recreation (1993–), education & communication (1993–).
Decade by decade: 1950 to 1972
Prices climbed fastest in the 1970s, averaging 3.79% a year, and slowest in the 1950s (2.08% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1950–1972 change:
Years
Avg. yearly inflation
Price change
$100 from 1950, at end
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 1950
$100 from 1950 had already become $124 by
1961, 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 0.4% in 1955, the deepest deflation of the period.
In 1972, prices rose 3.2% and $100 from 1950 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 1950 to 1972: $100 is worth $173 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1950-to-1972/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1950 to 1972. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1950-to-1972/