$100 in 1972 is worth $496 in 2007,
because prices increased 396.0% over that period, an average of
4.68% a year.
$100 in 1972 has
the same buying power as
$496
in 2007
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
396.0%
Average inflation rate
4.68% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$496
Price difference ($100 base)
$396
CPI in 1972
41.8
CPI in 2007
207.342
Inflation in 1972
3.21%
Inflation in 2007
2.85%
$100 in 1972 → 2007
$496
$100 in 2007 → 1972
$20.16
What happened to prices between 1972 and 2007
Between 1972 and 2007, the Consumer Price Index went from 41.8 to 207.342.
Cumulatively, prices increased 396.0%, which works out to an average of
4.68% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1972 bought what
$0.20 buys in 2007: the 1972 dollar
lost 79.8% of its purchasing power over
these 35 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 2007 at the same ratio, 4.96: $1,000 becomes
$4,960, and $10,000 becomes $49,603.
Amount in 1972
Value in 2007
$1.00
$4.96
$5.00
$24.80
$10.00
$49.60
$20.00
$99.21
$50.00
$248
$100
$496
$500
$2,480
$1,000
$4,960
$5,000
$24,802
$10,000
$49,603
$100,000
$496,033
$1,000,000
$4,960,335
Inflation by spending category, 1972–2007
Between 1972 and 2007, medical care rose the most, up 841.2%, while apparel rose the least, up 91.0%, against 396.0% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1972
spending costs in 2007, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1972 →
All items (CPI-U)
4.68%
$496
Medical care
6.62%
$941
Energy
5.98%
$764
Housing
4.89%
$532
Food
4.60%
$482
Core (all items less food & energy)
4.58%
$479
Transportation
4.48%
$463
Apparel
1.87%
$191
Not shown because the BLS began these indexes after 1972: recreation (1993–), education & communication (1993–).
Decade by decade: 1972 to 2007
Prices climbed fastest in the 1970s, averaging 8.85% a year, and slowest in the 2000s (2.69% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1972–2007 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
2000–2007
2.69%
20.4%
$496
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1972
$100 from 1972 had already become $313 by
1990, on its way to $496 in 2007; 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: 2007
In 2007, prices rose 2.8% and $100 from 1972 had the buying
power of $496; the year's average CPI of 207.342 is the level
behind every 2007 figure on this page.
Inflation was 2.8% in 2007, with gasoline averaging $2.80 a gallon, but the year is better
known for what began underneath prices. In August, French bank BNP Paribas froze funds tied to
U.S. subprime mortgages, and credit between banks tightened. The Federal Reserve responded with
a half-point cut on September 18, its first in four years, and took the policy rate from 5.25% to
4.25% by December. The economy peaked that month, by the National Bureau of Economic Research’s
dating, and the Great Recession followed. The median household earned about $50,200, and the
median new home cost $247,900. Congress ended the decade-long freeze on the federal minimum wage
in May, with the first of three steps to $5.85 in July. A first-class stamp cost 41 cents.
MLA: “Inflation from 1972 to 2007: $100 is worth $496 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1972-to-2007/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1972 to 2007. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1972-to-2007/