$100 in 1972 is worth $619 in 2020,
because prices increased 519.2% over that period, an average of
3.87% a year.
$100 in 1972 has
the same buying power as
$619
in 2020
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
519.2%
Average inflation rate
3.87% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$619
Price difference ($100 base)
$519
CPI in 1972
41.8
CPI in 2020
258.811
Inflation in 1972
3.21%
Inflation in 2020
1.23%
$100 in 1972 → 2020
$619
$100 in 2020 → 1972
$16.15
What happened to prices between 1972 and 2020
Between 1972 and 2020, the Consumer Price Index went from 41.8 to 258.811.
Cumulatively, prices increased 519.2%, which works out to an average of
3.87% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1972 bought what
$0.16 buys in 2020: the 1972 dollar
lost 83.8% of its purchasing power over
these 48 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 2020 at the same ratio, 6.19: $1,000 becomes
$6,192, and $10,000 becomes $61,917.
Amount in 1972
Value in 2020
$1.00
$6.19
$5.00
$30.96
$10.00
$61.92
$20.00
$124
$50.00
$310
$100
$619
$500
$3,096
$1,000
$6,192
$5,000
$30,958
$10,000
$61,917
$100,000
$619,165
$1,000,000
$6,191,651
Inflation by spending category, 1972–2020
Between 1972 and 2020, medical care rose the most, up 1291.1%, while apparel rose the least, up 89.5%, against 519.2% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1972
spending costs in 2020, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1972 →
All items (CPI-U)
3.87%
$619
Medical care
5.64%
$1,391
Energy
4.21%
$724
Housing
4.11%
$690
Food
3.93%
$635
Core (all items less food & energy)
3.83%
$608
Transportation
3.43%
$505
Apparel
1.34%
$190
Not shown because the BLS began these indexes after 1972: recreation (1993–), education & communication (1993–).
Decade by decade: 1972 to 2020
Prices climbed fastest in the 1970s, averaging 8.85% a year, and slowest in the 2010s (1.73% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1972–2020 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
2010–2020
1.73%
18.7%
$619
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1972
$100 from 1972 had already become $375 by
1996, on its way to $619 in 2020; 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: 2020
In 2020, prices rose 1.2% and $100 from 1972 had the buying
power of $619; the year's average CPI of 258.811 is the level
behind every 2020 figure on this page.
2020 was the year the pandemic rewired the price data without triggering the
inflation spike that followed it. Consumer prices rose just 1.2% for the
year, the mildest pace since 2015, as COVID-19 lockdowns emptied roads,
closed airports, and crushed energy demand. Oil told the starkest story: on
April 20, U.S. crude futures fell to about negative $37 a barrel, the first
negative settlement in the market’s history, as storage capacity ran out and no one
wanted the physical barrels. Gasoline followed it down, falling to about
$1.80 a gallon nationally that month before recovering to average $2.17 for
the year. Grocery prices moved the other way: pantry stocking and
meatpacking-plant disruptions pushed food-at-home costs up faster than
usual, a rare case of food and energy pulling the index in opposite
directions. Washington answered with the $2.2 trillion CARES Act, signed
March 27, which sent $1,200 payments to most adults and added $600 a week
to unemployment benefits as states ordered widespread business closures.
The Federal Reserve cut its policy rate to near zero in two emergency moves
that same month and pledged to buy Treasury and mortgage bonds “in the
amounts needed” to keep credit markets working, an open-ended commitment
beyond even its 2008 response. None of it showed up in the CPI yet: the
stimulus, the supply shocks, and the reopening whiplash that followed would
build into the fastest inflation in four decades over the next two years.
MLA: “Inflation from 1972 to 2020: $100 is worth $619 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1972-to-2020/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1972 to 2020. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1972-to-2020/