$100 in 1972 is worth $522 in 2010,
because prices increased 421.7% over that period, an average of
4.44% a year.
$100 in 1972 has
the same buying power as
$522
in 2010
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
421.7%
Average inflation rate
4.44% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$522
Price difference ($100 base)
$422
CPI in 1972
41.8
CPI in 2010
218.056
Inflation in 1972
3.21%
Inflation in 2010
1.64%
$100 in 1972 → 2010
$522
$100 in 2010 → 1972
$19.17
What happened to prices between 1972 and 2010
Between 1972 and 2010, the Consumer Price Index went from 41.8 to 218.056.
Cumulatively, prices increased 421.7%, which works out to an average of
4.44% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1972 bought what
$0.19 buys in 2010: the 1972 dollar
lost 80.8% of its purchasing power over
these 38 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 2010 at the same ratio, 5.22: $1,000 becomes
$5,217, and $10,000 becomes $52,167.
Amount in 1972
Value in 2010
$1.00
$5.22
$5.00
$26.08
$10.00
$52.17
$20.00
$104
$50.00
$261
$100
$522
$500
$2,608
$1,000
$5,217
$5,000
$26,083
$10,000
$52,167
$100,000
$521,665
$1,000,000
$5,216,651
Inflation by spending category, 1972–2010
Between 1972 and 2010, medical care rose the most, up 941.4%, while apparel rose the least, up 91.8%, against 421.7% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1972
spending costs in 2010, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1972 →
All items (CPI-U)
4.44%
$522
Medical care
6.36%
$1,041
Energy
5.55%
$777
Housing
4.58%
$549
Food
4.44%
$522
Core (all items less food & energy)
4.34%
$503
Transportation
4.24%
$485
Apparel
1.73%
$192
Not shown because the BLS began these indexes after 1972: recreation (1993–), education & communication (1993–).
Decade by decade: 1972 to 2010
Prices climbed fastest in the 1970s, averaging 8.85% a year, and slowest in the 2000s (2.39% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1972–2010 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
2000–2010
2.39%
26.6%
$522
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1972
$100 from 1972 had already become $313 by
1990, on its way to $522 in 2010; 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 prices fell 0.4% in 2009, the deepest deflation of the period.
Long periods are sampled every 2 years; the calculator above covers any pair of years.
The destination year: 2010
In 2010, prices rose 1.6% and $100 from 1972 had the buying
power of $522; the year's average CPI of 218.056 is the level
behind every 2010 figure on this page.
2010 was a year of recovery without much price pressure. The CPI rose 1.6%, a
return to growth after 2009’s deflation, with gasoline averaging $2.78 a
gallon as energy prices climbed back from their recession lows. Housing costs
barely moved: millions of foreclosed and vacant homes kept rents soft, and the
median new home sold for about $221,800. The federal minimum wage stayed at
$7.25, the level set in July 2009, and a first-class stamp cost 44 cents.
The Federal Reserve was more worried about too little inflation than too
much. Its policy rate sat at 0–0.25%, and in November it announced a further
$600 billion of Treasury purchases to hold down long-term borrowing costs.
Congress passed the Dodd-Frank Act in July to tighten financial regulation,
while a 110 billion euro rescue of Greece in May showed that the crisis had
moved from American mortgages to European government debt. For anyone
comparing dollars across the decade, 2010 is a useful baseline: prices were
still close to their 2008 levels, and the years ahead brought a slow, steady
climb.
MLA: “Inflation from 1972 to 2010: $100 is worth $522 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1972-to-2010/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1972 to 2010. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1972-to-2010/