$100 in 1972 is worth $440 in 2003,
because prices increased 340.2% over that period, an average of
4.90% a year.
$100 in 1972 has
the same buying power as
$440
in 2003
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
340.2%
Average inflation rate
4.90% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$440
Price difference ($100 base)
$340
CPI in 1972
41.8
CPI in 2003
184
Inflation in 1972
3.21%
Inflation in 2003
2.28%
$100 in 1972 → 2003
$440
$100 in 2003 → 1972
$22.72
What happened to prices between 1972 and 2003
Between 1972 and 2003, the Consumer Price Index went from 41.8 to 184.
Cumulatively, prices increased 340.2%, which works out to an average of
4.90% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1972 bought what
$0.23 buys in 2003: the 1972 dollar
lost 77.3% of its purchasing power over
these 31 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 2003 at the same ratio, 4.40: $1,000 becomes
$4,402, and $10,000 becomes $44,019.
Amount in 1972
Value in 2003
$1.00
$4.40
$5.00
$22.01
$10.00
$44.02
$20.00
$88.04
$50.00
$220
$100
$440
$500
$2,201
$1,000
$4,402
$5,000
$22,010
$10,000
$44,019
$100,000
$440,191
$1,000,000
$4,401,914
Inflation by spending category, 1972–2003
Between 1972 and 2003, medical care rose the most, up 696.5%, while apparel rose the least, up 94.1%, against 340.2% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1972
spending costs in 2003, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1972 →
All items (CPI-U)
4.90%
$440
Medical care
6.92%
$797
Energy
5.34%
$502
Housing
5.11%
$469
Core (all items less food & energy)
4.89%
$439
Food
4.80%
$428
Transportation
4.53%
$395
Apparel
2.16%
$194
Not shown because the BLS began these indexes after 1972: recreation (1993–), education & communication (1993–).
Decade by decade: 1972 to 2003
Prices climbed fastest in the 1970s, averaging 8.85% a year, and slowest in the 2000s (2.23% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1972–2003 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
1990–2000
2.80%
31.8%
$412
2000–2003
2.23%
6.9%
$440
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1972
$100 from 1972 had already become $283 by
1988, on its way to $440 in 2003; 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.
Long periods are sampled every 2 years; the calculator above covers any pair of years.
The destination year: 2003
In 2003, prices rose 2.3% and $100 from 1972 had the buying
power of $440; the year's average CPI of 184 is the level
behind every 2003 figure on this page.
Inflation was 2.3% in 2003, up from 1.6% in 2002, as gasoline climbed from $1.36 to $1.59 a
gallon around the March invasion of Iraq. Even so, the Federal Reserve spent the year worried
about prices being too low: on June 25 it cut its policy rate to 1.0%, the lowest since 1958,
and said the risk of deflation, though small, deserved a response. The median household earned
about $43,300 and a new home cost roughly $195,000. Congress passed a second round of tax cuts
in May, and the economy grew faster in the second half of the year than at any point since
1999. Hiring lagged the recovery, and unemployment peaked at 6.3% in June. A first-class stamp
stayed at 37 cents and the federal minimum wage at $5.15.
MLA: “Inflation from 1972 to 2003: $100 is worth $440 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1972-to-2003/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1972 to 2003. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1972-to-2003/