$100 in 1972 is worth $262 in 1986,
because prices increased 162.2% over that period, an average of
7.13% a year.
$100 in 1972 has
the same buying power as
$262
in 1986
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
162.2%
Average inflation rate
7.13% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$262
Price difference ($100 base)
$162
CPI in 1972
41.8
CPI in 1986
109.6
Inflation in 1972
3.21%
Inflation in 1986
1.86%
$100 in 1972 → 1986
$262
$100 in 1986 → 1972
$38.14
What happened to prices between 1972 and 1986
Between 1972 and 1986, the Consumer Price Index went from 41.8 to 109.6.
Cumulatively, prices increased 162.2%, which works out to an average of
7.13% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1972 bought what
$0.38 buys in 1986: the 1972 dollar
lost 61.9% of its purchasing power over
these 14 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 1986 at the same ratio, 2.62: $1,000 becomes
$2,622, and $10,000 becomes $26,220.
Amount in 1972
Value in 1986
$1.00
$2.62
$5.00
$13.11
$10.00
$26.22
$20.00
$52.44
$50.00
$131
$100
$262
$500
$1,311
$1,000
$2,622
$5,000
$13,110
$10,000
$26,220
$100,000
$262,201
$1,000,000
$2,622,010
Inflation by spending category, 1972–1986
Between 1972 and 1986, medical care rose the most, up 227.1%, while apparel rose the least, up 70.0%, against 162.2% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1972
spending costs in 1986, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1972 →
All items (CPI-U)
7.13%
$262
Medical care
8.83%
$327
Energy
8.77%
$324
Housing
7.67%
$281
Food
7.03%
$259
Core (all items less food & energy)
7.00%
$258
Transportation
6.96%
$256
Apparel
3.86%
$170
Not shown because the BLS began these indexes after 1972: recreation (1993–), education & communication (1993–).
Decade by decade: 1972 to 1986
Prices climbed fastest in the 1970s, averaging 8.85% a year, and slowest in the 1980s (4.87% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1972–1986 change:
Years
Avg. yearly inflation
Price change
$100 from 1972, at end
1972–1980
8.85%
97.1%
$197
1980–1986
4.87%
33.0%
$262
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1972
$100 from 1972 had already become $174 by
1979, on its way to $262 in 1986; 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 1.9% in 1986.
In 1986, prices rose 1.9% and $100 from 1972 had the buying
power of $262; the year's average CPI of 109.6 is the level
behind every 1986 figure on this page.
1986 delivered the decade’s biggest one-year drop in inflation, and it came
almost entirely from a single source: oil. Saudi Arabia abandoned its policy
of restraining output to prop up prices, and world crude collapsed from
about $27 a barrel to under $10 by midyear. Gasoline, which had averaged
$1.12 a gallon in 1985, fell to 86 cents. With energy costs plunging,
headline CPI inflation for the year came in at just 1.9%, the lowest annual
rate since 1965 and a striking bookend to 1980’s 13.5% peak. The relief was
uneven: prices for most goods and services outside energy kept rising at a
moderate pace, so households that didn’t drive much or heat with oil felt
less of the difference. In October, Congress passed the Tax Reform Act of
1986, a bipartisan overhaul that cut the top individual income tax rate from
50% to 28% while closing many deductions and shelters, the broadest rewrite
of the federal tax code since World War II. Between cheap gas and falling
interest rates, 1986 read like proof that the inflationary 1970s were a
closed chapter, six years after the U.S. economy had felt anything but
calm.
MLA: “Inflation from 1972 to 1986: $100 is worth $262 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1972-to-1986/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1972 to 1986. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1972-to-1986/