$100 in 1972 is worth $249 in 1984,
because prices increased 148.6% over that period, an average of
7.88% a year.
$100 in 1972 has
the same buying power as
$249
in 1984
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
148.6%
Average inflation rate
7.88% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$249
Price difference ($100 base)
$149
CPI in 1972
41.8
CPI in 1984
103.9
Inflation in 1972
3.21%
Inflation in 1984
4.32%
$100 in 1972 → 1984
$249
$100 in 1984 → 1972
$40.23
What happened to prices between 1972 and 1984
Between 1972 and 1984, the Consumer Price Index went from 41.8 to 103.9.
Cumulatively, prices increased 148.6%, which works out to an average of
7.88% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1972 bought what
$0.40 buys in 1984: the 1972 dollar
lost 59.8% of its purchasing power over
these 12 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 1984 at the same ratio, 2.49: $1,000 becomes
$2,486, and $10,000 becomes $24,856.
Amount in 1972
Value in 1984
$1.00
$2.49
$5.00
$12.43
$10.00
$24.86
$20.00
$49.71
$50.00
$124
$100
$249
$500
$1,243
$1,000
$2,486
$5,000
$12,428
$10,000
$24,856
$100,000
$248,565
$1,000,000
$2,485,646
Inflation by spending category, 1972–1984
Between 1972 and 1984, energy rose the most, up 271.0%, while apparel rose the least, up 63.9%, against 148.6% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1972
spending costs in 1984, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1972 →
All items (CPI-U)
7.88%
$249
Energy
11.54%
$371
Medical care
9.16%
$286
Housing
8.39%
$263
Transportation
8.28%
$260
Food
7.76%
$245
Core (all items less food & energy)
7.48%
$238
Apparel
4.20%
$164
Not shown because the BLS began these indexes after 1972: recreation (1993–), education & communication (1993–).
Decade by decade: 1972 to 1984
Prices climbed fastest in the 1970s, averaging 8.85% a year, and slowest in the 1980s (5.97% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1972–1984 change:
Years
Avg. yearly inflation
Price change
$100 from 1972, at end
1972–1980
8.85%
97.1%
$197
1980–1984
5.97%
26.1%
$249
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1972
$100 from 1972 had already become $156 by
1978, on its way to $249 in 1984; 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 1984, prices rose 4.3% and $100 from 1972 had the buying
power of $249; the year's average CPI of 103.9 is the level
behind every 1984 figure on this page.
1984 was the year the recovery became a boom. Real GDP grew 7.2%, the
fastest calendar-year growth since 1951, as the tax cuts passed in 1981
combined with falling interest rates and rebuilding consumer confidence.
Unemployment, which had topped 10.8% just two years earlier, fell below
7.5%. Inflation ticked up to 4.3% from 3.2% the year before, but nothing
close to a return of the 1970s wage-price spiral: the Federal Reserve under
Paul Volcker kept policy tight enough to hold the line while growth ran hot.
The strength of the expansion, branded “Morning in America” in President
Reagan’s reelection campaign, carried him to a 49-state landslide over
Walter Mondale that November, at the time the widest electoral-vote margin
in U.S. history. For households, the numbers behind the slogan were
concrete: median income rose to about $22,400, and a gallon of gas cost
$1.13, roughly what it had cost three years earlier even as wages kept
climbing. The contrast with 1980, when 13.5% inflation and interest rates
near 20% had defined the economy, could not have been sharper.
MLA: “Inflation from 1972 to 1984: $100 is worth $249 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1972-to-1984/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1972 to 1984. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1972-to-1984/