$100 in 1972 is worth $326 in 1991,
because prices increased 225.8% over that period, an average of
6.41% a year.
$100 in 1972 has
the same buying power as
$326
in 1991
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
225.8%
Average inflation rate
6.41% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$326
Price difference ($100 base)
$226
CPI in 1972
41.8
CPI in 1991
136.2
Inflation in 1972
3.21%
Inflation in 1991
4.21%
$100 in 1972 → 1991
$326
$100 in 1991 → 1972
$30.69
What happened to prices between 1972 and 1991
Between 1972 and 1991, the Consumer Price Index went from 41.8 to 136.2.
Cumulatively, prices increased 225.8%, which works out to an average of
6.41% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1972 bought what
$0.31 buys in 1991: the 1972 dollar
lost 69.3% of its purchasing power over
these 19 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 1991 at the same ratio, 3.26: $1,000 becomes
$3,258, and $10,000 becomes $32,584.
Amount in 1972
Value in 1991
$1.00
$3.26
$5.00
$16.29
$10.00
$32.58
$20.00
$65.17
$50.00
$163
$100
$326
$500
$1,629
$1,000
$3,258
$5,000
$16,292
$10,000
$32,584
$100,000
$325,837
$1,000,000
$3,258,373
Inflation by spending category, 1972–1991
Between 1972 and 1991, medical care rose the most, up 374.5%, while apparel rose the least, up 106.6%, against 225.8% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1972
spending costs in 1991, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1972 →
All items (CPI-U)
6.41%
$326
Medical care
8.54%
$475
Energy
7.23%
$377
Housing
6.64%
$339
Food
6.38%
$324
Core (all items less food & energy)
6.36%
$323
Transportation
6.14%
$310
Apparel
3.89%
$207
Not shown because the BLS began these indexes after 1972: recreation (1993–), education & communication (1993–).
Decade by decade: 1972 to 1991
Prices climbed fastest in the 1970s, averaging 8.85% a year, and slowest in the 1990s (4.21% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1972–1991 change:
Years
Avg. yearly inflation
Price change
$100 from 1972, at end
1972–1980
8.85%
97.1%
$197
1980–1990
4.72%
58.6%
$313
1990–1991
4.21%
4.2%
$326
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1972
$100 from 1972 had already become $217 by
1981, on its way to $326 in 1991; 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 1991, prices rose 4.2% and $100 from 1972 had the buying
power of $326; the year's average CPI of 136.2 is the level
behind every 1991 figure on this page.
1991 opened in recession and closed in a slow, uneven recovery. The median household earned
about $30,100 for the year, gas averaged $1.14 a gallon, and a new home cost roughly $120,000.
Inflation ran at 4.2% for the year, down from 1990’s oil-driven spike, as the Gulf War ended in
February and crude oil retreated from its autumn highs. The recession itself, dated by the
National Bureau of Economic Research from July 1990 to March 1991, was technically over by
spring, but hiring stayed weak well into 1992, the stretch economists came to call the jobless
recovery. The Federal Reserve kept cutting interest rates through the year to support growth,
reversing the tightening campaign it had run through the late 1980s. In April the federal
minimum wage rose to $4.25 an hour, the second step of an increase from the $3.35 rate that had
held since 1981. The Postal Service had already raised the cost of a first-class stamp to 29
cents that February. It was the first full year of the decade without an oil shock driving
prices, even if the job market took longer to follow.
MLA: “Inflation from 1972 to 1991: $100 is worth $326 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1972-to-1991/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1972 to 1991. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1972-to-1991/