$100 in 1958 is worth $145 in 1972,
because prices increased 44.6% over that period, an average of
2.67% a year.
$100 in 1958 has
the same buying power as
$145
in 1972
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
44.6%
Average inflation rate
2.67% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$145
Price difference ($100 base)
$44.64
CPI in 1958
28.9
CPI in 1972
41.8
Inflation in 1958
2.85%
Inflation in 1972
3.21%
$100 in 1958 → 1972
$145
$100 in 1972 → 1958
$69.14
What happened to prices between 1958 and 1972
Between 1958 and 1972, the Consumer Price Index went from 28.9 to 41.8.
Cumulatively, prices increased 44.6%, which works out to an average of
2.67% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1958 bought what
$0.69 buys in 1972: the 1958 dollar
lost 30.9% of its purchasing power over
these 14 years.
Consumer prices rose 2.8% in 1958, down only slightly from
1957’s 3.3% even as the country sank into the sharpest
postwar recession to that point, an early sign that inflation and a
shrinking economy could coexist rather than trade off against each other.
The National Bureau of Economic Research dates the downturn’s trough to
that April, with unemployment peaking near 7.5% that summer, the worst
reading since the 1930s. The Post Office raised first-class postage to 4
cents that August 1, up from 3 cents, the rate’s first change since 1932.
Washington answered the Soviet Union’s technological lead that summer
too: Eisenhower signed the National Aeronautics and Space Act on July 29,
establishing NASA, which opened for business that October 1 to compete
with the Soviet space program after the shock of Sputnik the year before.
Consumer prices finished 1958 191.9% above their 1913
level. The minimum wage held at $1.00 an hour, and first-class postage
rose to 4 cents that August, the first increase since 1932.
Every 1958 amount converts to 1972 at the same ratio, 1.45: $1,000 becomes
$1,446, and $10,000 becomes $14,464.
Amount in 1958
Value in 1972
$1.00
$1.45
$5.00
$7.23
$10.00
$14.46
$20.00
$28.93
$50.00
$72.32
$100
$145
$500
$723
$1,000
$1,446
$5,000
$7,232
$10,000
$14,464
$100,000
$144,637
$1,000,000
$1,446,367
Inflation by spending category, 1958–1972
Between 1958 and 1972, medical care rose the most, up 81.1%, while energy rose the least, up 26.5%, against 44.6% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1958
spending costs in 1972, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1958 →
All items (CPI-U)
2.67%
$145
Medical care
4.33%
$181
Core (all items less food & energy)
2.87%
$149
Apparel
2.42%
$140
Transportation
2.41%
$140
Food
2.40%
$139
Energy
1.69%
$127
Not shown because the BLS began these indexes after 1958: housing (1967–), recreation (1993–), education & communication (1993–).
Decade by decade: 1958 to 1972
Prices climbed fastest in the 1970s, averaging 3.79% a year, and slowest in the 1950s (1.20% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1958–1972 change:
Years
Avg. yearly inflation
Price change
$100 from 1958, at end
1958–1960
1.20%
2.4%
$102
1960–1970
2.74%
31.1%
$134
1970–1972
3.79%
7.7%
$145
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1958
$100 from 1958 had already become $109 by
1965, on its way to $145 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 1958 had the buying
power of $145; 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 1958 to 1972: $100 is worth $145 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1958-to-1972/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1958 to 1972. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1958-to-1972/