/born

Born in 1972

People born in 1972 turn 54 in 2026. A dollar in 1972 buys what $8.06 buys in September 2026, and about 3.84 billion people were alive. Every figure below links to the source it came from.

Your birthday in 1972

1972

What things cost in 1972

U.S. average1972in today’s dollarslatest
One dollar$1.00$8.06CPI-U
Median price of a new house sold MSPUS$27,525$221,784$410,700
Federal minimum wage STTMINWGFG$1.60$12.89$7.25

1972 figures are annual averages of the published monthly (or quarterly) values. “Today’s dollars” uses the Consumer Price Index for September 2026; “latest” is the most recent published price. Sources: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, U.S. Census Bureau, U.S. Department of Labor, via FRED.

Who was in charge in 1972

United States
Richard Nixon (President)
United Kingdom
Elizabeth II (Queen); Edward Heath (Prime minister)
Soviet Union
Leonid Brezhnev (General Secretary); Nikolai Podgorny (Chairman of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet); Alexei Kosygin (Chairman of the Council of Ministers)
People's Republic of China
Mao Zedong (Chairman; Paramount Leader); Zhou Enlai (Premier)
France
Georges Pompidou (President); Jacques Chaban-Delmas, then Pierre Messmer (Prime minister)
East Germany
Walter Ulbricht (Chairmen of the State Council); Willi Stoph (Chairman)
West Germany
Gustav Heinemann (President); Willy Brandt (Chancellor)
Japan
Hirohito (Emperor); Kakuei Tanaka (Prime minister)
Republic of India
V. V. Giri (President); Indira Gandhi (Prime minister)

From Wikipedia’s List of state leaders in the 20th century (1951–2000) (revision 1371751893), each name checked against Wikidata. Every country in 1972 →

No. 1 songs of 1972

  1. “Brand New Key” — Melanie (2 weeks)
  2. “American Pie” — Don McLean (4 weeks)
  3. “Let's Stay Together” — Al Green (1 week)
  4. “Without You” — Nilsson (4 weeks)
  5. “Heart of Gold” — Neil Young (1 week)
  6. “A Horse with No Name” — America (3 weeks)
  7. “The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face” — Roberta Flack (6 weeks)
  8. “Oh Girl” — The Chi-Lites (1 week)
  9. “I'll Take You There” — The Staple Singers (1 week)
  10. “The Candy Man” — Sammy Davis Jr. (3 weeks)
  11. “Song Sung Blue” — Neil Diamond (1 week)
  12. “Lean on Me” — Bill Withers (3 weeks)
  13. “Alone Again (Naturally)” — Gilbert O'Sullivan (6 weeks)
  14. “Brandy (You're a Fine Girl)” — Looking Glass (1 week)
  15. “Black and White” — Three Dog Night (1 week)
  16. “Baby, Don't Get Hooked on Me” — Mac Davis (3 weeks)
  17. “Ben” — Michael Jackson (1 week)
  18. “My Ding-a-Ling” — Chuck Berry (2 weeks)
  19. “I Can See Clearly Now” — Johnny Nash (4 weeks)
  20. “Papa Was a Rollin' Stone” — The Temptations (1 week)
  21. “I Am Woman” — Helen Reddy (1 week)
  22. “Me and Mrs. Jones” — Billy Paul (3 weeks)

Weeks at No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 with issue dates in 1972, from List of Billboard Hot 100 number ones of 1972 (Wikipedia revision 1374976883).

Famous people born in 1972

  • October 17 – Eminem, American rapper and actor source
  • August 15 – Ben Affleck, actor, director, screenwriter, and producer source
  • 23 June – Zinedine Zidane, international soccer player. source
  • February 8 – Big Show, wrestler and actor source
  • January 5 – Sakis Rouvas, Greek recording, film and television artist, athlete and businessman source
  • January 20 – Nikki Haley, politician, 116th Governor of South Carolina, and 29th United States Ambassador to the United Nations source
  • 11 February – Steve McManaman, footballer source
  • January 1 – Lilian Thuram, French football player source
  • February 8 – Big Show, American professional wrestler source
  • January 28 – Amy Coney Barrett, attorney, jurist, judge, and justice for the U.S. Supreme Court source
  • May 23 – Rubens Barrichello, Brazilian racing driver source
  • January 30 – Mike Johnson, politician, 56th speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives source
  • April 17 – Muttiah Muralitharan, Sri Lankan cricketer source
  • September 27 – Gwyneth Paltrow, actress, singer, and food writer source
  • November 1 – Toni Collette, Australian actress, singer and musician source

What happened in 1972

  • 1 January – Future President of Austria Kurt Waldheim becomes Secretary-General of the United Nations. source
  • January 21 – A New Delhi bootlegger sells wood alcohol to a wedding party; 100 people die. source
  • January 4 – The first scientific hand-held calculator (HP-35) is introduced (price $395). source
  • January 1 – Kurt Waldheim becomes Secretary-General of the United Nations. source
  • March 23–April 2 – A 47-member expedition conducted by Presidential Assistant for National Minorities (Panamin) which has been headed by Manuel Elizalde Jr., mostly scientists and later joined by one of the agency's directors—American Charles Lindbergh, makes a first visit to the caves inhabited by 25 "surviving" Tasadays, a group of Stone Age-style people discovered in June 1971, in an isolated mountain rainforest in South Cotabato—the "first discovery of cavemen in modern times." The expedition ends as explorers are rescued by the United States Armed Forces. source
  • January 9 – The RMS Queen Elizabeth catches fire and sinks in Hong Kong's Victoria harbor while undergoing conversion to a floating university. source
  • January 14 – Queen Margrethe II of Denmark succeeds her father, King Frederik IX, on the throne of Denmark, the first queen regnant of Denmark since 1412 and the first Danish monarch not named Frederick or Christian since 1513. source
  • 22 February – Haim Revivo, former Israeli football player and a businessman. source
Everything that happened in 1972 →