$100 in 1972 is worth $482 in 2006,
because prices increased 382.3% over that period, an average of
4.74% a year.
$100 in 1972 has
the same buying power as
$482
in 2006
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
382.3%
Average inflation rate
4.74% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$482
Price difference ($100 base)
$382
CPI in 1972
41.8
CPI in 2006
201.6
Inflation in 1972
3.21%
Inflation in 2006
3.23%
$100 in 1972 → 2006
$482
$100 in 2006 → 1972
$20.73
What happened to prices between 1972 and 2006
Between 1972 and 2006, the Consumer Price Index went from 41.8 to 201.6.
Cumulatively, prices increased 382.3%, which works out to an average of
4.74% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1972 bought what
$0.21 buys in 2006: the 1972 dollar
lost 79.3% of its purchasing power over
these 34 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 2006 at the same ratio, 4.82: $1,000 becomes
$4,823, and $10,000 becomes $48,230.
Amount in 1972
Value in 2006
$1.00
$4.82
$5.00
$24.11
$10.00
$48.23
$20.00
$96.46
$50.00
$241
$100
$482
$500
$2,411
$1,000
$4,823
$5,000
$24,115
$10,000
$48,230
$100,000
$482,297
$1,000,000
$4,822,967
Inflation by spending category, 1972–2006
Between 1972 and 2006, medical care rose the most, up 801.3%, while apparel rose the least, up 91.8%, against 382.3% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1972
spending costs in 2006, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1972 →
All items (CPI-U)
4.74%
$482
Medical care
6.68%
$901
Energy
5.99%
$724
Housing
4.94%
$516
Core (all items less food & energy)
4.64%
$468
Food
4.62%
$464
Transportation
4.55%
$453
Apparel
1.93%
$192
Not shown because the BLS began these indexes after 1972: recreation (1993–), education & communication (1993–).
Decade by decade: 1972 to 2006
Prices climbed fastest in the 1970s, averaging 8.85% a year, and slowest in the 2000s (2.66% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1972–2006 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
2000–2006
2.66%
17.1%
$482
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1972
$100 from 1972 had already become $283 by
1988, on its way to $482 in 2006; 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: 2006
In 2006, prices rose 3.2% and $100 from 1972 had the buying
power of $482; the year's average CPI of 201.6 is the level
behind every 2006 figure on this page.
Inflation was 3.2% in 2006 and gasoline averaged $2.59 a gallon, up 29 cents from 2005. The
median household earned about $48,200 and the median new home cost $246,500, a gain of about
2% after a 13% jump in 2004 and 9% in 2005. National home prices, by the S&P/Case-Shiller
index, peaked in mid-2006. Ben Bernanke replaced Alan Greenspan as Federal Reserve chair on
February 1, and on June 29 the Fed raised its policy rate to 5.25%, the last of 17 straight
quarter-point increases. It held there for over a year. A first-class stamp rose to 39 cents in
January, and the federal minimum wage was $5.15 for the ninth full year in a row.
MLA: “Inflation from 1972 to 2006: $100 is worth $482 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1972-to-2006/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1972 to 2006. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1972-to-2006/