$100 in 1950 is worth $110 in 1952,
because prices increased 10.0% over that period, an average of
4.86% a year.
$100 in 1950 has
the same buying power as
$110
in 1952
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
10.0%
Average inflation rate
4.86% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$110
Price difference ($100 base)
$9.96
CPI in 1950
24.1
CPI in 1952
26.5
Inflation in 1950
1.26%
Inflation in 1952
1.92%
$100 in 1950 → 1952
$110
$100 in 1952 → 1950
$90.94
What happened to prices between 1950 and 1952
Between 1950 and 1952, the Consumer Price Index went from 24.1 to 26.5.
Cumulatively, prices increased 10.0%, which works out to an average of
4.86% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1950 bought what
$0.91 buys in 1952: the 1950 dollar
lost 9.1% of its purchasing power over
these 2 years.
Consumer prices rose 1.3% in 1950, up from 1949’s 1.2%
decline, a mild gain that hid a sharp turn partway through the year. The
cost of living had been roughly flat through the spring, then jumped after
North Korea invaded South Korea on June 25, setting off a wave of hoarding
and defense buying reminiscent of World War II shortages. The United
States entered the war within days under a United Nations mandate;
American and South Korean forces were pushed back to the Pusan Perimeter
that summer before a landing at Inchon that September reversed the front,
and China’s entry into the war that November turned it into a longer
stalemate. Congress moved to put the economy on a war footing that
September, passing the Defense Production Act, which gave the president
authority to direct industrial output toward the military and, if prices
kept climbing, to impose formal wage and price controls. Domestic policy
also expanded that year: the Social Security Amendments of 1950, signed
August 28, raised benefits across the board and extended coverage to
roughly 10 million more workers, the program’s first major expansion since
it began in 1935. Consumer prices finished 1950 143.4% above their
1913 level, matching 1948’s postwar high
after 1949’s brief decline. First-class postage held at 3 cents, and the
minimum wage stood at 75 cents an hour after January’s increase.
Every 1950 amount converts to 1952 at the same ratio, 1.10: $1,000 becomes
$1,100, and $10,000 becomes $10,996.
Amount in 1950
Value in 1952
$1.00
$1.10
$5.00
$5.50
$10.00
$11.00
$20.00
$21.99
$50.00
$54.98
$100
$110
$500
$550
$1,000
$1,100
$5,000
$5,498
$10,000
$10,996
$100,000
$109,959
$1,000,000
$1,099,585
Inflation by spending category, 1950–1952
Between 1950 and 1952, transportation rose the most, up 13.2%, while apparel rose the least, up 7.9%, against 10.0% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1950
spending costs in 1952, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1950 →
All items (CPI-U)
4.86%
$110
Transportation
6.40%
$113
Food
6.30%
$113
Medical care
5.16%
$111
Apparel
3.89%
$108
Not shown because the BLS began these indexes after 1950: core (all items less food & energy) (1957–), energy (1957–), housing (1967–), recreation (1993–), education & communication (1993–).
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1950
$100 from 1950 had already become $108 by
1951, on its way to $110 in 1952; each row shows the CPI, that
year's inflation rate, and the running value.
Within the span, inflation peaked at 7.9% in 1951, and the smallest rise was 1.9% in 1952.
In 1952, prices rose 1.9% and $100 from 1950 had the buying
power of $110; the year's average CPI of 26.5 is the level
behind every 1952 figure on this page.
Consumer prices rose 1.9% in 1952, down sharply from 1951’s
7.9% as the price and wage controls imposed the year before held the cost
of living in check even with the Korean War still underway. Labor strife
tested those controls that spring: to head off a strike that could have
disrupted war production, President Truman ordered the government to
seize the steel industry that April, over the objections of steel
companies fighting the price the Office of Price Stabilization had set for
their product. The Supreme Court ruled the seizure unconstitutional in
Youngstown Sheet & Tube Co. v. Sawyer that June, a landmark limit on
presidential power, and steelworkers then struck for 53 days before a
settlement. Politics delivered the year’s biggest change that November:
Dwight Eisenhower defeated Adlai Stevenson, promising to “go to Korea” to
end the war and returning Republicans to the White House for the first
time since 1933. The Cold War’s technological edge sharpened that same
month, when the United States tested the first hydrogen bomb at Enewetak
Atoll on November 1, a device hundreds of times more powerful than the
atomic bombs used against Japan in 1945. Consumer prices finished 1952
167.7% above their 1913 level. First-class postage held at
3 cents, and the minimum wage stayed at 75 cents an hour.
MLA: “Inflation from 1950 to 1952: $100 is worth $110 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1950-to-1952/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1950 to 1952. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1950-to-1952/