$100 in 1972 is worth $390 in 1998,
because prices increased 290.0% over that period, an average of
5.37% a year.
$100 in 1972 has
the same buying power as
$390
in 1998
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
290.0%
Average inflation rate
5.37% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$390
Price difference ($100 base)
$290
CPI in 1972
41.8
CPI in 1998
163
Inflation in 1972
3.21%
Inflation in 1998
1.56%
$100 in 1972 → 1998
$390
$100 in 1998 → 1972
$25.64
What happened to prices between 1972 and 1998
Between 1972 and 1998, the Consumer Price Index went from 41.8 to 163.
Cumulatively, prices increased 290.0%, which works out to an average of
5.37% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1972 bought what
$0.26 buys in 1998: the 1972 dollar
lost 74.4% of its purchasing power over
these 26 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 1998 at the same ratio, 3.90: $1,000 becomes
$3,900, and $10,000 becomes $38,995.
Amount in 1972
Value in 1998
$1.00
$3.90
$5.00
$19.50
$10.00
$39.00
$20.00
$77.99
$50.00
$195
$100
$390
$500
$1,950
$1,000
$3,900
$5,000
$19,498
$10,000
$38,995
$100,000
$389,952
$1,000,000
$3,899,522
Inflation by spending category, 1972–1998
Between 1972 and 1998, medical care rose the most, up 549.1%, while apparel rose the least, up 113.5%, against 290.0% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1972
spending costs in 1998, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1972 →
All items (CPI-U)
5.37%
$390
Medical care
7.46%
$649
Housing
5.55%
$407
Core (all items less food & energy)
5.42%
$394
Food
5.29%
$382
Energy
5.25%
$378
Transportation
4.99%
$355
Apparel
2.96%
$213
Not shown because the BLS began these indexes after 1972: recreation (1993–), education & communication (1993–).
Decade by decade: 1972 to 1998
Prices climbed fastest in the 1970s, averaging 8.85% a year, and slowest in the 1990s (2.80% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1972–1998 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
1990–1998
2.80%
24.7%
$390
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1972
$100 from 1972 had already become $257 by
1985, on its way to $390 in 1998; 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 1.6% in 1998.
In 1998, prices rose 1.6% and $100 from 1972 had the buying
power of $390; the year's average CPI of 163 is the level
behind every 1998 figure on this page.
The median household earned about $38,900 in 1998, gas averaged just $1.06 a gallon, its
cheapest of the decade, and a new home cost roughly $152,500. Inflation ran at 1.6% for the
year, the lowest of the 1990s, as a glut of crude oil, worsened by weak demand from Asia’s
slowdown, pushed prices below $11 a barrel by December and pulled pump prices down with them.
The calm at home came alongside real turmoil abroad: in August, Russia devalued the ruble and
defaulted on its domestic debt, rattling markets already unsettled by the Asian financial
crisis, and in September the hedge fund Long-Term Capital Management collapsed after its highly
leveraged bets went bad, prompting the Federal Reserve to organize a private-sector bailout by
more than a dozen banks to prevent a disorderly unwinding of its roughly $100 billion in
positions. The Fed also cut interest rates three times that fall, in September, October, and
November, an insurance policy against the global financial turmoil spreading to the U.S.
economy. Cheap oil and a well-timed set of rate cuts left 1998 as a year the U.S. economy
absorbed two foreign financial crises without much of a dent at home.
MLA: “Inflation from 1972 to 1998: $100 is worth $390 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1972-to-1998/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1972 to 1998. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1972-to-1998/