$100 in 1972 is worth $217 in 1981,
because prices increased 117.5% over that period, an average of
9.02% a year.
$100 in 1972 has
the same buying power as
$217
in 1981
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
117.5%
Average inflation rate
9.02% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$217
Price difference ($100 base)
$117
CPI in 1972
41.8
CPI in 1981
90.9
Inflation in 1972
3.21%
Inflation in 1981
10.32%
$100 in 1972 → 1981
$217
$100 in 1981 → 1972
$45.98
What happened to prices between 1972 and 1981
Between 1972 and 1981, the Consumer Price Index went from 41.8 to 90.9.
Cumulatively, prices increased 117.5%, which works out to an average of
9.02% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1972 bought what
$0.46 buys in 1981: the 1972 dollar
lost 54.0% of its purchasing power over
these 9 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 1981 at the same ratio, 2.17: $1,000 becomes
$2,175, and $10,000 becomes $21,746.
Amount in 1972
Value in 1981
$1.00
$2.17
$5.00
$10.87
$10.00
$21.75
$20.00
$43.49
$50.00
$109
$100
$217
$500
$1,087
$1,000
$2,175
$5,000
$10,873
$10,000
$21,746
$100,000
$217,464
$1,000,000
$2,174,641
Inflation by spending category, 1972–1981
Between 1972 and 1981, energy rose the most, up 259.2%, while apparel rose the least, up 53.0%, against 117.5% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1972
spending costs in 1981, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1972 →
All items (CPI-U)
9.02%
$217
Energy
15.27%
$359
Transportation
9.88%
$234
Housing
9.67%
$229
Food
9.28%
$222
Medical care
9.28%
$222
Core (all items less food & energy)
8.17%
$203
Apparel
4.84%
$153
Not shown because the BLS began these indexes after 1972: recreation (1993–), education & communication (1993–).
Decade by decade: 1972 to 1981
Prices climbed fastest in the 1980s, averaging 10.32% a year, and slowest in the 1970s (8.85% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1972–1981 change:
Years
Avg. yearly inflation
Price change
$100 from 1972, at end
1972–1980
8.85%
97.1%
$197
1980–1981
10.32%
10.3%
$217
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1972
$100 from 1972 had already become $136 by
1976, on its way to $217 in 1981; 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 1981, prices rose 10.3% and $100 from 1972 had the buying
power of $217; the year's average CPI of 90.9 is the level
behind every 1981 figure on this page.
1981 was the year the inflation fever finally broke, at an extraordinary price.
Consumer prices rose 10.3%, the second year of back-to-back double-digit
inflation and the last time the U.S. would see one. To end it, Paul Volcker’s
Federal Reserve drove its policy rate above 19% and let borrowing costs go
where they may: a 30-year mortgage cost more than 18% by autumn, car loans and
business credit froze, and homebuilders mailed the Fed two-by-fours in protest.
The squeeze tipped the economy into recession in July, the deep 1981–82
downturn that would push unemployment past 10%. But it worked. Inflation fell
by nearly half within a year and to under 4% by 1983, the disinflation that
defined the following two decades. Even the price of mailing a letter told the
year’s story: postage went up twice in eight months.
MLA: “Inflation from 1972 to 1981: $100 is worth $217 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1972-to-1981/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1972 to 1981. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1972-to-1981/