$100 in 1972 is worth $365 in 1995,
because prices increased 264.6% over that period, an average of
5.79% a year.
$100 in 1972 has
the same buying power as
$365
in 1995
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
264.6%
Average inflation rate
5.79% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$365
Price difference ($100 base)
$265
CPI in 1972
41.8
CPI in 1995
152.4
Inflation in 1972
3.21%
Inflation in 1995
2.83%
$100 in 1972 → 1995
$365
$100 in 1995 → 1972
$27.43
What happened to prices between 1972 and 1995
Between 1972 and 1995, the Consumer Price Index went from 41.8 to 152.4.
Cumulatively, prices increased 264.6%, which works out to an average of
5.79% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1972 bought what
$0.27 buys in 1995: the 1972 dollar
lost 72.6% of its purchasing power over
these 23 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 1995 at the same ratio, 3.65: $1,000 becomes
$3,646, and $10,000 becomes $36,459.
Amount in 1972
Value in 1995
$1.00
$3.65
$5.00
$18.23
$10.00
$36.46
$20.00
$72.92
$50.00
$182
$100
$365
$500
$1,823
$1,000
$3,646
$5,000
$18,230
$10,000
$36,459
$100,000
$364,593
$1,000,000
$3,645,933
Inflation by spending category, 1972–1995
Between 1972 and 1995, medical care rose the most, up 491.2%, while apparel rose the least, up 111.9%, against 264.6% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1972
spending costs in 1995, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1972 →
All items (CPI-U)
5.79%
$365
Medical care
8.03%
$591
Energy
6.06%
$387
Housing
5.94%
$377
Core (all items less food & energy)
5.81%
$366
Food
5.63%
$352
Transportation
5.58%
$349
Apparel
3.32%
$212
Not shown because the BLS began these indexes after 1972: recreation (1993–), education & communication (1993–).
Decade by decade: 1972 to 1995
Prices climbed fastest in the 1970s, averaging 8.85% a year, and slowest in the 1990s (3.12% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1972–1995 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
1990–1995
3.12%
16.6%
$365
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1972
$100 from 1972 had already become $238 by
1983, on its way to $365 in 1995; 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 1995, prices rose 2.8% and $100 from 1972 had the buying
power of $365; the year's average CPI of 152.4 is the level
behind every 1995 figure on this page.
In 1995, gas averaged $1.15 a gallon, a new home cost roughly $133,900, and the median household
earned about $34,100. Inflation ran at 2.8% for the year, little changed from 1994, as the
Federal Reserve shifted from raising rates to cutting them. Having lifted its policy rate six
times the year before, the Fed judged by July that the economy had cooled enough on its own, and
trimmed rates instead, an outcome economists would later point to as a rare soft landing. The
year opened with a currency crisis: Mexico’s peso lost roughly half its value against the dollar
in a matter of weeks, and the U.S. Treasury and the IMF assembled a $50 billion rescue package,
controversial in Congress, to stabilize it and keep the crisis from spreading to other emerging
markets. Closer to home, a budget standoff between President Clinton and the Republican Congress
shut down federal agencies twice, first for five days in November and then for 21 days spanning
December into January 1996, the longest shutdown up to that point. The Postal Service raised the
cost of a first-class stamp to 32 cents in January. Low, steady inflation was about the only calm
part of 1995’s economic story.
MLA: “Inflation from 1972 to 1995: $100 is worth $365 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1972-to-1995/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1972 to 1995. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1972-to-1995/