$100 in 1950 is worth $123 in 1960,
because prices increased 22.8% over that period, an average of
2.08% a year.
$100 in 1950 has
the same buying power as
$123
in 1960
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
22.8%
Average inflation rate
2.08% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$123
Price difference ($100 base)
$22.82
CPI in 1950
24.1
CPI in 1960
29.6
Inflation in 1950
1.26%
Inflation in 1960
1.72%
$100 in 1950 → 1960
$123
$100 in 1960 → 1950
$81.42
What happened to prices between 1950 and 1960
Between 1950 and 1960, the Consumer Price Index went from 24.1 to 29.6.
Cumulatively, prices increased 22.8%, which works out to an average of
2.08% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1950 bought what
$0.81 buys in 1960: the 1950 dollar
lost 18.6% of its purchasing power over
these 10 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 1960 at the same ratio, 1.23: $1,000 becomes
$1,228, and $10,000 becomes $12,282.
Amount in 1950
Value in 1960
$1.00
$1.23
$5.00
$6.14
$10.00
$12.28
$20.00
$24.56
$50.00
$61.41
$100
$123
$500
$614
$1,000
$1,228
$5,000
$6,141
$10,000
$12,282
$100,000
$122,822
$1,000,000
$1,228,216
Inflation by spending category, 1950–1960
Between 1950 and 1960, medical care rose the most, up 47.7%, while apparel rose the least, up 13.4%, against 22.8% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1950
spending costs in 1960, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1950 →
All items (CPI-U)
2.08%
$123
Medical care
3.98%
$148
Transportation
2.76%
$131
Food
1.68%
$118
Apparel
1.27%
$113
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 $111 by
1955, on its way to $123 in 1960; 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 prices fell 0.4% in 1955, the deepest deflation of the period.
In 1960, prices rose 1.7% and $100 from 1950 had the buying
power of $123; the year's average CPI of 29.6 is the level
behind every 1960 figure on this page.
Consumer prices rose 1.7% in 1960, up from 1959’s 0.7% even
as the economy slipped into recession that April, a downturn that would
prove the shortest since World War II. The year’s defining political
moment came that November, when John F. Kennedy narrowly defeated Richard
Nixon in one of the closest presidential elections in U.S. history,
decided by roughly two-tenths of a percentage point in the popular vote.
Television played a new role in the race: the first-ever televised
presidential debate that September, watched by an estimated 70 million
people, was widely seen as favoring the telegenic Kennedy. Civil rights
protest took a new form that February, when four Black freshmen at North
Carolina A&T State University sat down at a whites-only Woolworth’s lunch
counter in Greensboro and refused to leave; the sit-in tactic spread to
dozens of Southern cities within weeks. Cold War tensions flared that May,
when a Soviet missile downed an American U-2 spy plane deep inside Soviet
airspace. The pilot, Francis Gary Powers, was captured alive, embarrassing
the Eisenhower administration and collapsing a Paris summit called to ease
relations with Moscow. Consumer prices finished 1960 199.0% above their
1913 level. First-class postage held at 4 cents, and the
minimum wage stayed at $1.00 an hour.
MLA: “Inflation from 1950 to 1960: $100 is worth $123 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1950-to-1960/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1950 to 1960. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1950-to-1960/