$100 in 1972 is worth $129 in 1975,
because prices increased 28.7% over that period, an average of
8.78% a year.
$100 in 1972 has
the same buying power as
$129
in 1975
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
28.7%
Average inflation rate
8.78% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$129
Price difference ($100 base)
$28.71
CPI in 1972
41.8
CPI in 1975
53.8
Inflation in 1972
3.21%
Inflation in 1975
9.13%
$100 in 1972 → 1975
$129
$100 in 1975 → 1972
$77.70
What happened to prices between 1972 and 1975
Between 1972 and 1975, the Consumer Price Index went from 41.8 to 53.8.
Cumulatively, prices increased 28.7%, which works out to an average of
8.78% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1972 bought what
$0.78 buys in 1975: the 1972 dollar
lost 22.3% of its purchasing power over
these 3 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 1975 at the same ratio, 1.29: $1,000 becomes
$1,287, and $10,000 becomes $12,871.
Amount in 1972
Value in 1975
$1.00
$1.29
$5.00
$6.44
$10.00
$12.87
$20.00
$25.74
$50.00
$64.35
$100
$129
$500
$644
$1,000
$1,287
$5,000
$6,435
$10,000
$12,871
$100,000
$128,708
$1,000,000
$1,287,081
Inflation by spending category, 1972–1975
Between 1972 and 1975, energy rose the most, up 54.8%, while apparel rose the least, up 16.4%, against 28.7% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1972
spending costs in 1975, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1972 →
All items (CPI-U)
8.78%
$129
Energy
15.67%
$155
Food
12.41%
$142
Housing
8.77%
$129
Medical care
8.39%
$127
Transportation
7.88%
$126
Core (all items less food & energy)
7.00%
$122
Apparel
5.18%
$116
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 $129 in 1975; 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 1975, prices rose 9.1% and $100 from 1972 had the buying
power of $129; the year's average CPI of 53.8 is the level
behind every 1975 figure on this page.
Consumer prices rose 9.1% in 1975, easing slightly from 1974’s
11.0% but still running far above anything the country had experienced before
the decade began. The recession that started in November 1973, the deepest
since the Great Depression, bottomed out that March, yet unemployment kept
climbing through the year and touched 9%, a combination of high inflation and
high joblessness that had no precedent in the postwar data. Vietnam ended
that April 30, when North Vietnamese forces captured Saigon and the last
Americans were evacuated by helicopter from the U.S. embassy roof. Fiscal
strain hit closer to home too: New York City, facing bankruptcy after years
of borrowing to paper over budget gaps, asked Washington for help that
October. President Ford’s initial refusal produced the Daily News headline
“Ford to City: Drop Dead,” though he ultimately signed a federal loan package
that December. Amid the gloom, Bill Gates and Paul Allen founded Microsoft
that April in Albuquerque, New Mexico, to sell a version of the BASIC
programming language for the Altair 8800, one of the first personal
computers sold to hobbyists. A median household earned $11,800 in 1975, a new
home sold for a median $39,300, and first-class postage held at 10 cents,
unchanged since 1974’s increase. Consumer prices stood 443.4%
above their 1913 level, with the decade barely past its
midpoint.
MLA: “Inflation from 1972 to 1975: $100 is worth $129 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1972-to-1975/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1972 to 1975. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1972-to-1975/