$100 in 1972 is worth $601 in 2018,
because prices increased 500.7% over that period, an average of
3.97% a year.
$100 in 1972 has
the same buying power as
$601
in 2018
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
500.7%
Average inflation rate
3.97% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$601
Price difference ($100 base)
$501
CPI in 1972
41.8
CPI in 2018
251.107
Inflation in 1972
3.21%
Inflation in 2018
2.44%
$100 in 1972 → 2018
$601
$100 in 2018 → 1972
$16.65
What happened to prices between 1972 and 2018
Between 1972 and 2018, the Consumer Price Index went from 41.8 to 251.107.
Cumulatively, prices increased 500.7%, which works out to an average of
3.97% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1972 bought what
$0.17 buys in 2018: the 1972 dollar
lost 83.4% of its purchasing power over
these 46 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 2018 at the same ratio, 6.01: $1,000 becomes
$6,007, and $10,000 becomes $60,073.
Amount in 1972
Value in 2018
$1.00
$6.01
$5.00
$30.04
$10.00
$60.07
$20.00
$120
$50.00
$300
$100
$601
$500
$3,004
$1,000
$6,007
$5,000
$30,037
$10,000
$60,073
$100,000
$600,734
$1,000,000
$6,007,344
Inflation by spending category, 1972–2018
Between 1972 and 2018, medical care rose the most, up 1199.5%, while apparel rose the least, up 101.7%, against 500.7% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1972
spending costs in 2018, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1972 →
All items (CPI-U)
3.97%
$601
Medical care
5.73%
$1,299
Energy
4.65%
$809
Housing
4.17%
$656
Food
3.98%
$602
Core (all items less food & energy)
3.92%
$585
Transportation
3.68%
$528
Apparel
1.54%
$202
Not shown because the BLS began these indexes after 1972: recreation (1993–), education & communication (1993–).
Decade by decade: 1972 to 2018
Prices climbed fastest in the 1970s, averaging 8.85% a year, and slowest in the 2010s (1.78% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1972–2018 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
2010–2018
1.78%
15.2%
$601
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1972
$100 from 1972 had already become $355 by
1994, on its way to $601 in 2018; 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: 2018
In 2018, prices rose 2.4% and $100 from 1972 had the buying
power of $601; the year's average CPI of 251.107 is the level
behind every 2018 figure on this page.
2018 was the peak of the late-2010s expansion. Consumer prices rose 2.4%,
the fastest since 2011, with gasoline averaging $2.72 a gallon after a summer
high. Unemployment fell to 3.7% in September, the lowest since 1969, and median
household income reached $63,179. The median new home sold for about $331,800,
and a first-class stamp cost 50 cents. The federal minimum wage was still $7.25.
Trade policy became a price factor for the first time in decades. New tariffs
on steel, aluminum, and a growing list of Chinese goods raised costs for
manufacturers and some consumer products, and retaliation cut into exports of
soybeans and other farm goods.
The Federal Reserve, led from February by Jerome Powell, raised rates four
times to 2.25–2.50%. A stock-market drop of nearly 20% in the fourth quarter
led the Fed to signal a pause in early 2019. Oil fell from over $75 a barrel in
October to below $50 by December, which pulled headline inflation lower going
into the next year.
MLA: “Inflation from 1972 to 2018: $100 is worth $601 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1972-to-2018/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1972 to 2018. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1972-to-2018/