$100 in 1972 is worth $197 in 1980,
because prices increased 97.1% over that period, an average of
8.85% a year.
$100 in 1972 has
the same buying power as
$197
in 1980
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
97.1%
Average inflation rate
8.85% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$197
Price difference ($100 base)
$97.13
CPI in 1972
41.8
CPI in 1980
82.4
Inflation in 1972
3.21%
Inflation in 1980
13.50%
$100 in 1972 → 1980
$197
$100 in 1980 → 1972
$50.73
What happened to prices between 1972 and 1980
Between 1972 and 1980, the Consumer Price Index went from 41.8 to 82.4.
Cumulatively, prices increased 97.1%, which works out to an average of
8.85% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1972 bought what
$0.51 buys in 1980: the 1972 dollar
lost 49.3% of its purchasing power over
these 8 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 1980 at the same ratio, 1.97: $1,000 becomes
$1,971, and $10,000 becomes $19,713.
Amount in 1972
Value in 1980
$1.00
$1.97
$5.00
$9.86
$10.00
$19.71
$20.00
$39.43
$50.00
$98.56
$100
$197
$500
$986
$1,000
$1,971
$5,000
$9,856
$10,000
$19,713
$100,000
$197,129
$1,000,000
$1,971,292
Inflation by spending category, 1972–1980
Between 1972 and 1980, energy rose the most, up 216.2%, while apparel rose the least, up 45.9%, against 97.1% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1972
spending costs in 1980, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1972 →
All items (CPI-U)
8.85%
$197
Energy
15.48%
$316
Transportation
9.60%
$208
Food
9.47%
$206
Housing
9.44%
$206
Medical care
9.11%
$201
Core (all items less food & energy)
7.89%
$184
Apparel
4.84%
$146
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 $136 by
1976, on its way to $197 in 1980; 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 5.8% in 1976.
In 1980, prices rose 13.5% and $100 from 1972 had the buying
power of $197; the year's average CPI of 82.4 is the level
behind every 1980 figure on this page.
1980 sat at the very peak of the Great Inflation. Prices rose 13.5% in that
single year, mortgage rates were climbing toward 16%, and the Federal Reserve
under Paul Volcker was administering the painful interest-rate medicine that
would finally break the inflationary spiral, at the cost of the deep 1981–82
recession. No single year looms larger in how Americans think about inflation.
MLA: “Inflation from 1972 to 1980: $100 is worth $197 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1972-to-1980/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1972 to 1980. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1972-to-1980/