$100 in 1972 is worth $238 in 1983,
because prices increased 138.3% over that period, an average of
8.21% a year.
$100 in 1972 has
the same buying power as
$238
in 1983
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
138.3%
Average inflation rate
8.21% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$238
Price difference ($100 base)
$138
CPI in 1972
41.8
CPI in 1983
99.6
Inflation in 1972
3.21%
Inflation in 1983
3.21%
$100 in 1972 → 1983
$238
$100 in 1983 → 1972
$41.97
What happened to prices between 1972 and 1983
Between 1972 and 1983, the Consumer Price Index went from 41.8 to 99.6.
Cumulatively, prices increased 138.3%, which works out to an average of
8.21% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1972 bought what
$0.42 buys in 1983: the 1972 dollar
lost 58.0% of its purchasing power over
these 11 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 1983 at the same ratio, 2.38: $1,000 becomes
$2,383, and $10,000 becomes $23,828.
Amount in 1972
Value in 1983
$1.00
$2.38
$5.00
$11.91
$10.00
$23.83
$20.00
$47.66
$50.00
$119
$100
$238
$500
$1,191
$1,000
$2,383
$5,000
$11,914
$10,000
$23,828
$100,000
$238,278
$1,000,000
$2,382,775
Inflation by spending category, 1972–1983
Between 1972 and 1983, energy rose the most, up 267.3%, while apparel rose the least, up 60.8%, against 138.3% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1972
spending costs in 1983, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1972 →
All items (CPI-U)
8.21%
$238
Energy
12.55%
$367
Medical care
9.44%
$270
Housing
8.79%
$253
Transportation
8.64%
$249
Food
8.12%
$236
Core (all items less food & energy)
7.71%
$226
Apparel
4.41%
$161
Not shown because the BLS began these indexes after 1972: recreation (1993–), education & communication (1993–).
Decade by decade: 1972 to 1983
Prices climbed fastest in the 1970s, averaging 8.85% a year, and slowest in the 1980s (6.52% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1972–1983 change:
Years
Avg. yearly inflation
Price change
$100 from 1972, at end
1972–1980
8.85%
97.1%
$197
1980–1983
6.52%
20.9%
$238
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1972
$100 from 1972 had already become $145 by
1977, on its way to $238 in 1983; 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 3.2% in 1983.
In 1983, prices rose 3.2% and $100 from 1972 had the buying
power of $238; the year's average CPI of 99.6 is the level
behind every 1983 figure on this page.
1983 confirmed that the Volcker disinflation was not a one-year fluke.
Consumer prices rose 3.2% for the year, nearly identical to 1982’s pace and a
fraction of the double-digit rates of 1980 and 1981. With inflation tamed and
interest rates coming down, the economy roared back from the 1981-82
recession: real GDP grew 4.6%, the strongest calendar-year growth since the
1950s, and unemployment fell from its 10.8% peak to 8.3% by December. Housing
and auto sales, both starved of credit during the recession, led the
rebound. In April, Congress and President Reagan enacted the Social Security
Amendments of 1983, a bipartisan rescue of a system projected to run out of
money within months. The law gradually raised the full retirement age from
65 to 67, began taxing benefits for higher-income retirees, and delayed that
year’s cost-of-living adjustment by six months. For a program whose benefits
had been indexed to the CPI since 1975, the amendments were the first major
sign that inflation-proofing Social Security carried a cost Congress could
not simply legislate away. By year’s end, gas averaged $1.16 a gallon and
mailing a letter still cost 20 cents, prices that had barely moved since
1981, a sharp break from the constant increases of the previous decade.
MLA: “Inflation from 1972 to 1983: $100 is worth $238 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1972-to-1983/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1972 to 1983. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1972-to-1983/