$100 in 1972 is worth $375 in 1996,
because prices increased 275.4% over that period, an average of
5.67% a year.
$100 in 1972 has
the same buying power as
$375
in 1996
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
275.4%
Average inflation rate
5.67% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$375
Price difference ($100 base)
$275
CPI in 1972
41.8
CPI in 1996
156.9
Inflation in 1972
3.21%
Inflation in 1996
2.95%
$100 in 1972 → 1996
$375
$100 in 1996 → 1972
$26.64
What happened to prices between 1972 and 1996
Between 1972 and 1996, the Consumer Price Index went from 41.8 to 156.9.
Cumulatively, prices increased 275.4%, which works out to an average of
5.67% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1972 bought what
$0.27 buys in 1996: the 1972 dollar
lost 73.4% of its purchasing power over
these 24 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 1996 at the same ratio, 3.75: $1,000 becomes
$3,754, and $10,000 becomes $37,536.
Amount in 1972
Value in 1996
$1.00
$3.75
$5.00
$18.77
$10.00
$37.54
$20.00
$75.07
$50.00
$188
$100
$375
$500
$1,877
$1,000
$3,754
$5,000
$18,768
$10,000
$37,536
$100,000
$375,359
$1,000,000
$3,753,589
Inflation by spending category, 1972–1996
Between 1972 and 1996, medical care rose the most, up 511.8%, while apparel rose the least, up 111.4%, against 275.4% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1972
spending costs in 1996, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1972 →
All items (CPI-U)
5.67%
$375
Medical care
7.84%
$612
Energy
6.00%
$405
Housing
5.81%
$388
Core (all items less food & energy)
5.68%
$376
Food
5.53%
$364
Transportation
5.46%
$358
Apparel
3.17%
$211
Not shown because the BLS began these indexes after 1972: recreation (1993–), education & communication (1993–).
Decade by decade: 1972 to 1996
Prices climbed fastest in the 1970s, averaging 8.85% a year, and slowest in the 1990s (3.09% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1972–1996 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
1990–1996
3.09%
20.0%
$375
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1972
$100 from 1972 had already become $249 by
1984, on its way to $375 in 1996; 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 1996, prices rose 3.0% and $100 from 1972 had the buying
power of $375; the year's average CPI of 156.9 is the level
behind every 1996 figure on this page.
The median household earned about $35,500 in 1996, gas averaged $1.23 a gallon, up noticeably
from the mid-decade lull, and a new home cost roughly $140,000. Inflation ran at 3.0% for the
year, ticking back up from 1995 as energy prices firmed. Washington passed two of the decade’s
more consequential laws that year: in February, the Telecommunications Act rewrote the rules for
phone, cable, and broadcast media for the first time since 1934, opening local markets to
competition and easing ownership limits; in August, a welfare overhaul ended the federal
guarantee of cash assistance, replacing it with block grants to states and time limits on
benefits. In October, the federal minimum wage rose to $4.75 an hour, its first increase in five
years and the opening step of a two-part law that would take it to $5.15 the following
September. Two sweeping new laws and a minimum wage finally on the move again made 1996 a year
that changed more about how the economy was governed than about how fast prices moved.
MLA: “Inflation from 1972 to 1996: $100 is worth $375 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1972-to-1996/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1972 to 1996. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1972-to-1996/