$100 in 1972 is worth $257 in 1985,
because prices increased 157.4% over that period, an average of
7.54% a year.
$100 in 1972 has
the same buying power as
$257
in 1985
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
157.4%
Average inflation rate
7.54% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$257
Price difference ($100 base)
$157
CPI in 1972
41.8
CPI in 1985
107.6
Inflation in 1972
3.21%
Inflation in 1985
3.56%
$100 in 1972 → 1985
$257
$100 in 1985 → 1972
$38.85
What happened to prices between 1972 and 1985
Between 1972 and 1985, the Consumer Price Index went from 41.8 to 107.6.
Cumulatively, prices increased 157.4%, which works out to an average of
7.54% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1972 bought what
$0.39 buys in 1985: the 1972 dollar
lost 61.2% of its purchasing power over
these 13 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 1985 at the same ratio, 2.57: $1,000 becomes
$2,574, and $10,000 becomes $25,742.
Amount in 1972
Value in 1985
$1.00
$2.57
$5.00
$12.87
$10.00
$25.74
$20.00
$51.48
$50.00
$129
$100
$257
$500
$1,287
$1,000
$2,574
$5,000
$12,871
$10,000
$25,742
$100,000
$257,416
$1,000,000
$2,574,163
Inflation by spending category, 1972–1985
Between 1972 and 1985, energy rose the most, up 273.5%, while apparel rose the least, up 68.5%, against 157.4% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1972
spending costs in 1985, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1972 →
All items (CPI-U)
7.54%
$257
Energy
10.67%
$374
Medical care
8.94%
$304
Housing
8.04%
$273
Transportation
7.84%
$267
Food
7.33%
$251
Core (all items less food & energy)
7.23%
$248
Apparel
4.10%
$169
Not shown because the BLS began these indexes after 1972: recreation (1993–), education & communication (1993–).
Decade by decade: 1972 to 1985
Prices climbed fastest in the 1970s, averaging 8.85% a year, and slowest in the 1980s (5.48% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1972–1985 change:
Years
Avg. yearly inflation
Price change
$100 from 1972, at end
1972–1980
8.85%
97.1%
$197
1980–1985
5.48%
30.6%
$257
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1972
$100 from 1972 had already become $156 by
1978, on its way to $257 in 1985; 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 1985, prices rose 3.6% and $100 from 1972 had the buying
power of $257; the year's average CPI of 107.6 is the level
behind every 1985 figure on this page.
By 1985, low inflation had become the norm rather than the exception.
Consumer prices rose 3.6% for the year, the fourth straight year in the
3-6% range following the double-digit spikes of 1980 and 1981, proof that
the disinflation had held rather than merely paused, as it had after
previous recessions. Overseas, the dollar had become a problem of its own:
years of high U.S. interest rates had pulled in foreign capital and pushed
the dollar’s value up so far that American exporters were losing business
abroad, widening the trade deficit. In September, the finance ministers of
the U.S., Japan, West Germany, France, and the United Kingdom met at New
York’s Plaza Hotel and agreed to coordinate a managed decline of the
dollar; it fell roughly 25% against major currencies over the following two
years. At home, Congress responded to a federal deficit that had roughly
tripled since 1980 by passing the Gramm-Rudman-Hollings Act in December,
setting binding targets to shrink the deficit with automatic
across-the-board cuts if lawmakers missed them. Households felt the calmer
economy in small ways: first-class postage rose to 22 cents in February,
its first increase since November 1981, after nearly four years at 20
cents.
MLA: “Inflation from 1972 to 1985: $100 is worth $257 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1972-to-1985/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1972 to 1985. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1972-to-1985/