$100 in 1972 is worth $399 in 1999,
because prices increased 298.6% over that period, an average of
5.25% a year.
$100 in 1972 has
the same buying power as
$399
in 1999
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
298.6%
Average inflation rate
5.25% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$399
Price difference ($100 base)
$299
CPI in 1972
41.8
CPI in 1999
166.6
Inflation in 1972
3.21%
Inflation in 1999
2.21%
$100 in 1972 → 1999
$399
$100 in 1999 → 1972
$25.09
What happened to prices between 1972 and 1999
Between 1972 and 1999, the Consumer Price Index went from 41.8 to 166.6.
Cumulatively, prices increased 298.6%, which works out to an average of
5.25% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1972 bought what
$0.25 buys in 1999: the 1972 dollar
lost 74.9% of its purchasing power over
these 27 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 1999 at the same ratio, 3.99: $1,000 becomes
$3,986, and $10,000 becomes $39,856.
Amount in 1972
Value in 1999
$1.00
$3.99
$5.00
$19.93
$10.00
$39.86
$20.00
$79.71
$50.00
$199
$100
$399
$500
$1,993
$1,000
$3,986
$5,000
$19,928
$10,000
$39,856
$100,000
$398,565
$1,000,000
$3,985,646
Inflation by spending category, 1972–1999
Between 1972 and 1999, medical care rose the most, up 571.8%, while apparel rose the least, up 110.8%, against 298.6% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1972
spending costs in 1999, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1972 →
All items (CPI-U)
5.25%
$399
Medical care
7.31%
$672
Housing
5.42%
$416
Core (all items less food & energy)
5.29%
$402
Energy
5.19%
$392
Food
5.17%
$390
Transportation
4.88%
$362
Apparel
2.80%
$211
Not shown because the BLS began these indexes after 1972: recreation (1993–), education & communication (1993–).
Decade by decade: 1972 to 1999
Prices climbed fastest in the 1970s, averaging 8.85% a year, and slowest in the 1990s (2.73% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1972–1999 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
1990–1999
2.73%
27.5%
$399
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1972
$100 from 1972 had already become $257 by
1985, on its way to $399 in 1999; 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 1999, prices rose 2.2% and $100 from 1972 had the buying
power of $399; the year's average CPI of 166.6 is the level
behind every 1999 figure on this page.
The median household earned about $40,700 in 1999, gas averaged $1.17 a gallon, and a new home
cost roughly $161,000. Inflation ran at 2.2% for the year, ticking back up from 1998’s decade low
as oil prices recovered from their collapse. The decade closed with two changes to the financial
system that would shape the one after it: on January 1, the euro launched as an accounting
currency across 11 European countries, trading alongside national currencies like the French
franc and German mark ahead of physical cash in 2002, and in November, Congress passed the
Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act, tearing down the Depression-era wall between commercial banks, investment
banks, and insurers. Stock markets, meanwhile, were absorbed in a boom of their own: the Nasdaq
surged through the year on soaring internet-stock valuations, and the Federal Reserve raised
interest rates three times in the second half of 1999 partly to cool the exuberance, even as it
pumped extra liquidity into the banking system to guard against any disruption from the Y2K
rollover. A first-class stamp cost 33 cents. Inflation had spent the decade falling from 1990’s
5.4% peak to averages closer to 2-3%, and 1999 closed it out almost exactly where the 1990s as a
whole had settled.
MLA: “Inflation from 1972 to 1999: $100 is worth $399 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1972-to-1999/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1972 to 1999. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1972-to-1999/