$100 in 1951 is worth $161 in 1972,
because prices increased 60.8% over that period, an average of
2.29% a year.
$100 in 1951 has
the same buying power as
$161
in 1972
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
60.8%
Average inflation rate
2.29% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$161
Price difference ($100 base)
$60.77
CPI in 1951
26
CPI in 1972
41.8
Inflation in 1951
7.88%
Inflation in 1972
3.21%
$100 in 1951 → 1972
$161
$100 in 1972 → 1951
$62.20
What happened to prices between 1951 and 1972
Between 1951 and 1972, the Consumer Price Index went from 26 to 41.8.
Cumulatively, prices increased 60.8%, which works out to an average of
2.29% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1951 bought what
$0.62 buys in 1972: the 1951 dollar
lost 37.8% of its purchasing power over
these 21 years.
Consumer prices rose 7.9% in 1951, up sharply from 1950’s
1.3% and the fastest increase since 1947, as Korean War buying and a
defense spending surge hit an economy still adjusting to peacetime. Much
of the jump came early in the year, before the government stepped in: the
Office of Price Stabilization imposed a general ceiling on prices January
26, and the Wage Stabilization Board froze wages soon after, the broadest
peacetime controls since the war began that June. The year’s more lasting
change came in monetary policy. On March 4, the Treasury and the Federal
Reserve signed the Accord, ending the Fed’s wartime obligation to hold
down interest rates on government bonds and freeing the central bank to
fight inflation on its own terms for the first time since 1942, a shift
that would shape Fed independence for decades. Congress raised taxes that
October to help pay for the war: the Revenue Act of 1951, signed October
20, lifted individual and corporate income taxes along with a range of
excise taxes, the third increase in taxes since fighting began in Korea.
Consumer prices finished 1951 162.6% above their 1913
level. First-class postage held at 3 cents, and the minimum wage stayed at
75 cents an hour.
Every 1951 amount converts to 1972 at the same ratio, 1.61: $1,000 becomes
$1,608, and $10,000 becomes $16,077.
Amount in 1951
Value in 1972
$1.00
$1.61
$5.00
$8.04
$10.00
$16.08
$20.00
$32.15
$50.00
$80.38
$100
$161
$500
$804
$1,000
$1,608
$5,000
$8,038
$10,000
$16,077
$100,000
$160,769
$1,000,000
$1,607,692
Inflation by spending category, 1951–1972
Between 1951 and 1972, medical care rose the most, up 134.6%, while apparel rose the least, up 41.9%, against 60.8% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1951
spending costs in 1972, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1951 →
All items (CPI-U)
2.29%
$161
Medical care
4.14%
$235
Transportation
2.43%
$166
Food
1.93%
$149
Apparel
1.68%
$142
Not shown because the BLS began these indexes after 1951: core (all items less food & energy) (1957–), energy (1957–), housing (1967–), recreation (1993–), education & communication (1993–).
Decade by decade: 1951 to 1972
Prices climbed fastest in the 1970s, averaging 3.79% a year, and slowest in the 1950s (1.45% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1951–1972 change:
Years
Avg. yearly inflation
Price change
$100 from 1951, at end
1951–1960
1.45%
13.8%
$114
1960–1970
2.74%
31.1%
$149
1970–1972
3.79%
7.7%
$161
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1951
$100 from 1951 had already become $115 by
1961, on its way to $161 in 1972; each row shows the CPI, that
year's inflation rate, and the running value.
Within the span, inflation peaked at 5.7% in 1970, and prices fell 0.4% in 1955, the deepest deflation of the period.
In 1972, prices rose 3.2% and $100 from 1951 had the buying
power of $161; 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 1951 to 1972: $100 is worth $161 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1951-to-1972/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1951 to 1972. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1951-to-1972/