$100 in 1956 is worth $154 in 1972,
because prices increased 53.7% over that period, an average of
2.72% a year.
$100 in 1956 has
the same buying power as
$154
in 1972
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
53.7%
Average inflation rate
2.72% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$154
Price difference ($100 base)
$53.68
CPI in 1956
27.2
CPI in 1972
41.8
Inflation in 1956
1.49%
Inflation in 1972
3.21%
$100 in 1956 → 1972
$154
$100 in 1972 → 1956
$65.07
What happened to prices between 1956 and 1972
Between 1956 and 1972, the Consumer Price Index went from 27.2 to 41.8.
Cumulatively, prices increased 53.7%, which works out to an average of
2.72% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1956 bought what
$0.65 buys in 1972: the 1956 dollar
lost 34.9% of its purchasing power over
these 16 years.
Consumer prices rose 1.5% in 1956, a return to mild inflation after they had
fallen 0.4% in 1955, the only annual decline of the decade. The two years sat
in the calmest stretch of the postwar index, a lull between the Korean War
price surge earlier in the 1950s and the acceleration that would return in
the 1970s. Congress had already raised the wage floor into that calm: the
Fair Labor Standards Amendments of 1955, signed the previous August, took
effect March 1 and lifted the federal minimum wage from 75 cents to $1 an
hour, the first increase since 1950. Eisenhower signed a longer-lasting
commitment on June 29, the Federal-Aid Highway Act, funding 41,000 miles of
controlled-access highway at 90% federal cost to build the Interstate
System, the largest public-works program the country had undertaken. He won
a second term that November, carrying 41 states and about 57% of the
popular vote in a rematch against Adlai Stevenson. Abroad, the Suez Crisis
broke the calm on the supply side: Egypt nationalized the canal on July 26,
and after Israel invaded the Sinai on October 29 with British and French
forces following, the canal’s closure and damaged pipelines squeezed oil
shipments to Western Europe for months. Consumer prices stood 174.7% above
their 1913 level by 1956, up 94% since 1940
alone, even after a decade that had barely moved the index. First-class
postage held at 3 cents, unchanged since 1932.
Every 1956 amount converts to 1972 at the same ratio, 1.54: $1,000 becomes
$1,537, and $10,000 becomes $15,368.
Amount in 1956
Value in 1972
$1.00
$1.54
$5.00
$7.68
$10.00
$15.37
$20.00
$30.74
$50.00
$76.84
$100
$154
$500
$768
$1,000
$1,537
$5,000
$7,684
$10,000
$15,368
$100,000
$153,676
$1,000,000
$1,536,765
Inflation by spending category, 1956–1972
Between 1956 and 1972, medical care rose the most, up 97.4%, while apparel rose the least, up 42.6%, against 53.7% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1956
spending costs in 1972, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1956 →
All items (CPI-U)
2.72%
$154
Medical care
4.34%
$197
Transportation
2.66%
$152
Food
2.58%
$150
Apparel
2.24%
$143
Not shown because the BLS began these indexes after 1956: core (all items less food & energy) (1957–), energy (1957–), housing (1967–), recreation (1993–), education & communication (1993–).
Decade by decade: 1956 to 1972
Prices climbed fastest in the 1970s, averaging 3.79% a year, and slowest in the 1950s (2.14% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1956–1972 change:
Years
Avg. yearly inflation
Price change
$100 from 1956, at end
1956–1960
2.14%
8.8%
$109
1960–1970
2.74%
31.1%
$143
1970–1972
3.79%
7.7%
$154
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1956
$100 from 1956 had already become $114 by
1964, on its way to $154 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 the smallest rise was 0.7% in 1959.
In 1972, prices rose 3.2% and $100 from 1956 had the buying
power of $154; 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 1956 to 1972: $100 is worth $154 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1956-to-1972/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1956 to 1972. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1956-to-1972/