$100 in 1972 is worth $346 in 1993,
because prices increased 245.7% over that period, an average of
6.08% a year.
$100 in 1972 has
the same buying power as
$346
in 1993
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
245.7%
Average inflation rate
6.08% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$346
Price difference ($100 base)
$246
CPI in 1972
41.8
CPI in 1993
144.5
Inflation in 1972
3.21%
Inflation in 1993
2.99%
$100 in 1972 → 1993
$346
$100 in 1993 → 1972
$28.93
What happened to prices between 1972 and 1993
Between 1972 and 1993, the Consumer Price Index went from 41.8 to 144.5.
Cumulatively, prices increased 245.7%, which works out to an average of
6.08% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1972 bought what
$0.29 buys in 1993: the 1972 dollar
lost 71.1% of its purchasing power over
these 21 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 1993 at the same ratio, 3.46: $1,000 becomes
$3,457, and $10,000 becomes $34,569.
Amount in 1972
Value in 1993
$1.00
$3.46
$5.00
$17.28
$10.00
$34.57
$20.00
$69.14
$50.00
$173
$100
$346
$500
$1,728
$1,000
$3,457
$5,000
$17,285
$10,000
$34,569
$100,000
$345,694
$1,000,000
$3,456,938
Inflation by spending category, 1972–1993
Between 1972 and 1993, medical care rose the most, up 439.9%, while apparel rose the least, up 114.6%, against 245.7% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1972
spending costs in 1993, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1972 →
All items (CPI-U)
6.08%
$346
Medical care
8.36%
$540
Energy
6.60%
$383
Housing
6.27%
$358
Core (all items less food & energy)
6.09%
$346
Food
5.92%
$335
Transportation
5.80%
$327
Apparel
3.70%
$215
Not shown because the BLS began these indexes after 1972: recreation (1993–), education & communication (1993–).
Decade by decade: 1972 to 1993
Prices climbed fastest in the 1970s, averaging 8.85% a year, and slowest in the 1990s (3.40% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1972–1993 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
1990–1993
3.40%
10.6%
$346
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1972
$100 from 1972 had already become $231 by
1982, on its way to $346 in 1993; 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 1993, prices rose 3.0% and $100 from 1972 had the buying
power of $346; the year's average CPI of 144.5 is the level
behind every 1993 figure on this page.
By 1993, the median household earned about $31,200, gas averaged $1.11 a gallon, and a new home
cost roughly $126,500. Inflation ran at 3.0% for the year, holding close to where it had settled
the year before as the recovery slowly gathered strength. Washington spent much of the year on
two pieces of unfinished business from the recession: a deficit-reduction package, the Omnibus
Budget Reconciliation Act, that raised the top income tax rate to 39.6% to start narrowing a
budget gap left over from the 1980s, and a trade deal, the North American Free Trade Agreement,
that President Clinton signed into law in December after a contentious fight in Congress. NAFTA
phased out most tariffs between the U.S., Mexico, and Canada and took effect the following
January. The year’s other defining event had nothing to do with the economy: in February, a bomb
exploded in the World Trade Center’s parking garage, killing six people and injuring more than a
thousand. By year’s end, the pieces of the decade’s later economic story, freer trade, a
shrinking deficit, and inflation holding near 3%, were already in place.
MLA: “Inflation from 1972 to 1993: $100 is worth $346 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1972-to-1993/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1972 to 1993. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1972-to-1993/