$100 in 1972 is worth $118 in 1974,
because prices increased 17.9% over that period, an average of
8.60% a year.
$100 in 1972 has
the same buying power as
$118
in 1974
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
17.9%
Average inflation rate
8.60% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$118
Price difference ($100 base)
$17.94
CPI in 1972
41.8
CPI in 1974
49.3
Inflation in 1972
3.21%
Inflation in 1974
11.04%
$100 in 1972 → 1974
$118
$100 in 1974 → 1972
$84.79
What happened to prices between 1972 and 1974
Between 1972 and 1974, the Consumer Price Index went from 41.8 to 49.3.
Cumulatively, prices increased 17.9%, which works out to an average of
8.60% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1972 bought what
$0.85 buys in 1974: the 1972 dollar
lost 15.2% of its purchasing power over
these 2 years.
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.
Every 1972 amount converts to 1974 at the same ratio, 1.18: $1,000 becomes
$1,179, and $10,000 becomes $11,794.
Amount in 1972
Value in 1974
$1.00
$1.18
$5.00
$5.90
$10.00
$11.79
$20.00
$23.59
$50.00
$58.97
$100
$118
$500
$590
$1,000
$1,179
$5,000
$5,897
$10,000
$11,794
$100,000
$117,943
$1,000,000
$1,179,426
Inflation by spending category, 1972–1974
Between 1972 and 1974, energy rose the most, up 40.1%, while apparel rose the least, up 11.4%, against 17.9% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1972
spending costs in 1974, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1972 →
All items (CPI-U)
8.60%
$118
Energy
18.35%
$140
Food
14.40%
$131
Housing
7.82%
$116
Transportation
7.14%
$115
Medical care
6.62%
$114
Core (all items less food & energy)
5.96%
$112
Apparel
5.54%
$111
Not shown because the BLS began these indexes after 1972: recreation (1993–), education & communication (1993–).
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1972
$100 from 1972 had already become $106 by
1973, on its way to $118 in 1974; each row shows the CPI, that
year's inflation rate, and the running value.
Within the span, inflation peaked at 11.0% in 1974, and the smallest rise was 6.2% in 1973.
In 1974, prices rose 11.0% and $100 from 1972 had the buying
power of $118; the year's average CPI of 49.3 is the level
behind every 1974 figure on this page.
1974 was the year the postwar economy broke its old rules. Consumer prices
rose 11.0%, the fastest annual increase since 1947, as the Arab oil embargo
that ran from October 1973 to March 1974 roughly quadrupled the price of
crude oil worldwide. Gasoline, which had averaged 38.5 cents a gallon in
1973, jumped to 53.2 cents, and shortages forced many states into odd-even
rationing at the pump. Nixon’s wage and price controls, in place in some form
since 1971, expired at the end of April, removing the last brake on prices
just as the oil shock hit. Nixon himself resigned in August over Watergate,
and Gerald Ford’s response to inflation, a voluntary “Whip Inflation Now”
campaign built around lapel buttons, became a symbol of how little
conventional politics could do against the problem. Prices kept climbing even
as the economy weakened: a recession that started in November 1973 dragged
on, the Dow fell to a bear-market bottom of 577.60 in December, and
unemployment was already rising toward the 9% it would reach in 1975. The
combination of rising prices and a shrinking economy gave the decade its
name: stagflation.
MLA: “Inflation from 1972 to 1974: $100 is worth $118 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1972-to-1974/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1972 to 1974. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1972-to-1974/