$100 in 1970 is worth $362 in 1992,
because prices increased 261.6% over that period, an average of
6.02% a year.
$100 in 1970 has
the same buying power as
$362
in 1992
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
261.6%
Average inflation rate
6.02% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$362
Price difference ($100 base)
$262
CPI in 1970
38.8
CPI in 1992
140.3
Inflation in 1970
5.72%
Inflation in 1992
3.01%
$100 in 1970 → 1992
$362
$100 in 1992 → 1970
$27.66
What happened to prices between 1970 and 1992
Between 1970 and 1992, the Consumer Price Index went from 38.8 to 140.3.
Cumulatively, prices increased 261.6%, which works out to an average of
6.02% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1970 bought what
$0.28 buys in 1992: the 1970 dollar
lost 72.3% of its purchasing power over
these 22 years.
Consumer prices rose 5.7% in 1970, up from 1969’s 5.5%, extending a
run of faster price growth that stretched back to the mid-1960s, even as a
recession that began in December 1969 pushed unemployment toward 6%. Prices
and joblessness rising together confounded the era’s economic thinking, which
held that policymakers could trade a little more inflation for a little less
unemployment; 1970 was an early sign that trade-off was breaking down, a
pattern that would harden into stagflation later in the decade. Washington
restructured how it delivered mail that year: after postal workers staged the
first strike ever by federal employees that March, Congress passed the Postal
Reorganization Act in August, replacing the cabinet-level Post Office
Department with the independent U.S. Postal Service. Environmental policy
also took shape in 1970. An estimated 20 million Americans marked the first
Earth Day on April 22, and the Environmental Protection Agency opened that
December to enforce the Clean Air Act and the pollution rules that followed.
The Vietnam War kept dividing the country: on May 4, National Guard troops
fired on antiwar demonstrators at Kent State University in Ohio, killing four
students and setting off strikes on hundreds of campuses. A median household
earned $8,734 that year, a gallon of gas averaged 36 cents, and a first-class
stamp cost 6 cents, the rate it had held since 1968. Prices stood 291.9%
above their 1913 level by the end of 1970, a milestone that
would look almost mild against the decade still to come.
Every 1970 amount converts to 1992 at the same ratio, 3.62: $1,000 becomes
$3,616, and $10,000 becomes $36,160.
Amount in 1970
Value in 1992
$1.00
$3.62
$5.00
$18.08
$10.00
$36.16
$20.00
$72.32
$50.00
$181
$100
$362
$500
$1,808
$1,000
$3,616
$5,000
$18,080
$10,000
$36,160
$100,000
$361,598
$1,000,000
$3,615,979
Inflation by spending category, 1970–1992
Between 1970 and 1992, medical care rose the most, up 459.1%, while apparel rose the least, up 122.8%, against 261.6% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1970
spending costs in 1992, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1970 →
All items (CPI-U)
6.02%
$362
Medical care
8.14%
$559
Energy
6.55%
$404
Housing
6.23%
$378
Core (all items less food & energy)
6.01%
$361
Food
5.88%
$352
Transportation
5.68%
$337
Apparel
3.71%
$223
Not shown because the BLS began these indexes after 1970: recreation (1993–), education & communication (1993–).
Decade by decade: 1970 to 1992
Prices climbed fastest in the 1970s, averaging 7.82% a year, and slowest in the 1990s (3.61% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1970–1992 change:
Years
Avg. yearly inflation
Price change
$100 from 1970, at end
1970–1980
7.82%
112.4%
$212
1980–1990
4.72%
58.6%
$337
1990–1992
3.61%
7.3%
$362
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1970
$100 from 1970 had already become $234 by
1981, on its way to $362 in 1992; each row shows the CPI, that
year's inflation rate, and the running value.
Within the span, inflation peaked at 13.5% in 1980, and the smallest rise was 1.9% in 1986.
In 1992, prices rose 3.0% and $100 from 1970 had the buying
power of $362; the year's average CPI of 140.3 is the level
behind every 1992 figure on this page.
1992 was the year the recovery finally showed up in the numbers, if not yet in hiring. The
median household earned about $30,600, gas averaged $1.13 a gallon, and a new home cost roughly
$121,500. Inflation ran at 3.0% for the year, its calmest reading since the mid-1980s, as energy
prices stayed well below their 1990 peak and a slack labor market kept a lid on wages and prices
alike. The Federal Reserve kept cutting its policy rate through the year, reaching about 3% by
September, the lowest in decades, trying to jump-start hiring more than a year after the 1990-91
recession officially ended. The sluggish job market became the defining issue of the November
election, and Bill Clinton unseated incumbent George H.W. Bush, whose approval ratings had
fallen sharply from their post-Gulf War highs. In August, Hurricane Andrew tore through South
Florida, the costliest U.S. hurricane on record at the time, causing tens of billions of dollars
in damage and reshaping how insurers priced catastrophe risk for years afterward. Falling rates,
a costly hurricane, and an election fought over jobs defined a recovery that showed up in the
data well before it showed up in most paychecks.
MLA: “Inflation from 1970 to 1992: $100 is worth $362 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1970-to-1992/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1970 to 1992. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1970-to-1992/