$100 in 1954 is worth $155 in 1972,
because prices increased 55.4% over that period, an average of
2.48% a year.
$100 in 1954 has
the same buying power as
$155
in 1972
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
55.4%
Average inflation rate
2.48% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$155
Price difference ($100 base)
$55.39
CPI in 1954
26.9
CPI in 1972
41.8
Inflation in 1954
0.75%
Inflation in 1972
3.21%
$100 in 1954 → 1972
$155
$100 in 1972 → 1954
$64.35
What happened to prices between 1954 and 1972
Between 1954 and 1972, the Consumer Price Index went from 26.9 to 41.8.
Cumulatively, prices increased 55.4%, which works out to an average of
2.48% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1954 bought what
$0.64 buys in 1972: the 1954 dollar
lost 35.6% of its purchasing power over
these 18 years.
Consumer prices rose 0.7% in 1954, extending 1953’s 0.8%
slowdown even as the economy tipped into recession, an early example of
prices continuing to rise through a downturn rather than falling with it.
The National Bureau of Economic Research dates that recession from July
1953 to May 1954, as defense spending fell after the Korean War armistice
and the tighter monetary policy of the year before worked its way through
the economy. The Supreme Court reshaped a different part of American life
that spring: its unanimous May 17 ruling in Brown v. Board of Education
held that “separate but equal” public schools violated the Constitution,
overturning the legal basis for segregated education. Washington also
closed the book on a different fight that year. Following the televised
Army-McCarthy hearings that spring, the Senate voted 67 to 22 on December
2 to condemn Senator Joseph McCarthy’s conduct, ending his dominance of
American politics after four years of anti-communist investigations.
Consumer prices finished 1954 171.7% above their 1913
level, essentially flat with 1953 as the mild recession
held the cost of living in check. First-class postage held at 3 cents,
and the minimum wage stayed at 75 cents an hour.
Every 1954 amount converts to 1972 at the same ratio, 1.55: $1,000 becomes
$1,554, and $10,000 becomes $15,539.
Amount in 1954
Value in 1972
$1.00
$1.55
$5.00
$7.77
$10.00
$15.54
$20.00
$31.08
$50.00
$77.70
$100
$155
$500
$777
$1,000
$1,554
$5,000
$7,770
$10,000
$15,539
$100,000
$155,390
$1,000,000
$1,553,903
Inflation by spending category, 1954–1972
Between 1954 and 1972, medical care rose the most, up 109.6%, while apparel rose the least, up 44.5%, against 55.4% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1954
spending costs in 1972, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1954 →
All items (CPI-U)
2.48%
$155
Medical care
4.20%
$210
Transportation
2.39%
$153
Food
2.25%
$149
Apparel
2.07%
$145
Not shown because the BLS began these indexes after 1954: core (all items less food & energy) (1957–), energy (1957–), housing (1967–), recreation (1993–), education & communication (1993–).
Decade by decade: 1954 to 1972
Prices climbed fastest in the 1970s, averaging 3.79% a year, and slowest in the 1950s (1.61% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1954–1972 change:
Years
Avg. yearly inflation
Price change
$100 from 1954, at end
1954–1960
1.61%
10.0%
$110
1960–1970
2.74%
31.1%
$144
1970–1972
3.79%
7.7%
$155
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1954
$100 from 1954 had already become $114 by
1963, on its way to $155 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 1954 had the buying
power of $155; 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 1954 to 1972: $100 is worth $155 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1954-to-1972/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1954 to 1972. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1954-to-1972/