$100 in 1972 is worth $355 in 1994,
because prices increased 254.5% over that period, an average of
5.92% a year.
$100 in 1972 has
the same buying power as
$355
in 1994
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
254.5%
Average inflation rate
5.92% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$355
Price difference ($100 base)
$255
CPI in 1972
41.8
CPI in 1994
148.2
Inflation in 1972
3.21%
Inflation in 1994
2.56%
$100 in 1972 → 1994
$355
$100 in 1994 → 1972
$28.21
What happened to prices between 1972 and 1994
Between 1972 and 1994, the Consumer Price Index went from 41.8 to 148.2.
Cumulatively, prices increased 254.5%, which works out to an average of
5.92% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1972 bought what
$0.28 buys in 1994: the 1972 dollar
lost 71.8% of its purchasing power over
these 22 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 1994 at the same ratio, 3.55: $1,000 becomes
$3,545, and $10,000 becomes $35,455.
Amount in 1972
Value in 1994
$1.00
$3.55
$5.00
$17.73
$10.00
$35.45
$20.00
$70.91
$50.00
$177
$100
$355
$500
$1,773
$1,000
$3,545
$5,000
$17,727
$10,000
$35,455
$100,000
$354,545
$1,000,000
$3,545,455
Inflation by spending category, 1972–1994
Between 1972 and 1994, medical care rose the most, up 465.7%, while apparel rose the least, up 114.1%, against 254.5% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1972
spending costs in 1994, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1972 →
All items (CPI-U)
5.92%
$355
Medical care
8.20%
$566
Energy
6.31%
$385
Housing
6.09%
$368
Core (all items less food & energy)
5.94%
$356
Food
5.76%
$343
Transportation
5.67%
$337
Apparel
3.52%
$214
Not shown because the BLS began these indexes after 1972: recreation (1993–), education & communication (1993–).
Decade by decade: 1972 to 1994
Prices climbed fastest in the 1970s, averaging 8.85% a year, and slowest in the 1990s (3.19% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1972–1994 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
1990–1994
3.19%
13.4%
$355
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1972
$100 from 1972 had already become $238 by
1983, on its way to $355 in 1994; 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 1994, prices rose 2.6% and $100 from 1972 had the buying
power of $355; the year's average CPI of 148.2 is the level
behind every 1994 figure on this page.
Gas averaged $1.11 a gallon in 1994, a new home cost roughly $130,000, and the median household
earned about $32,300. Inflation ran at 2.6% for the year, the calmest reading since the
mid-1980s, even as the Federal Reserve spent the year raising interest rates precisely to keep
it that way. Chair Alan Greenspan’s Fed lifted the federal funds rate from 3% to 5.5% over six
moves, a preemptive tightening campaign meant to head off inflation before it built rather than
react to it after the fact. The bond market, unprepared for such a rapid climb, sold off
sharply, and the higher rates rippled into places few had expected: Orange County, California,
whose investment pool had bet heavily on rates staying low, filed for bankruptcy in December
after losing an estimated $1.7 billion, the largest municipal bankruptcy in the country’s
history at the time. On the trade front, NAFTA took effect January 1, phasing out tariffs on
thousands of goods moving between the U.S., Mexico, and Canada, the start of a schedule that
would eliminate most remaining barriers over the following decade. It was a year that showed
inflation control could have its own costs, paid out in the bond market and, in Orange County’s
case, a bankruptcy court.
MLA: “Inflation from 1972 to 1994: $100 is worth $355 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1972-to-1994/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1972 to 1994. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1972-to-1994/