$100 in 1950 is worth $400 in 1982,
because prices increased 300.4% over that period, an average of
4.43% a year.
$100 in 1950 has
the same buying power as
$400
in 1982
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
300.4%
Average inflation rate
4.43% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$400
Price difference ($100 base)
$300
CPI in 1950
24.1
CPI in 1982
96.5
Inflation in 1950
1.26%
Inflation in 1982
6.16%
$100 in 1950 → 1982
$400
$100 in 1982 → 1950
$24.97
What happened to prices between 1950 and 1982
Between 1950 and 1982, the Consumer Price Index went from 24.1 to 96.5.
Cumulatively, prices increased 300.4%, which works out to an average of
4.43% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1950 bought what
$0.25 buys in 1982: the 1950 dollar
lost 75.0% of its purchasing power over
these 32 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 1982 at the same ratio, 4.00: $1,000 becomes
$4,004, and $10,000 becomes $40,041.
Amount in 1950
Value in 1982
$1.00
$4.00
$5.00
$20.02
$10.00
$40.04
$20.00
$80.08
$50.00
$200
$100
$400
$500
$2,002
$1,000
$4,004
$5,000
$20,021
$10,000
$40,041
$100,000
$400,415
$1,000,000
$4,004,149
Inflation by spending category, 1950–1982
Between 1950 and 1982, medical care rose the most, up 512.6%, while apparel rose the least, up 142.7%, against 300.4% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1950
spending costs in 1982, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1950 →
All items (CPI-U)
4.43%
$400
Medical care
5.83%
$613
Transportation
4.64%
$427
Food
4.29%
$383
Apparel
2.81%
$243
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–).
Decade by decade: 1950 to 1982
Prices climbed fastest in the 1980s, averaging 8.22% a year, and slowest in the 1950s (2.08% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1950–1982 change:
Years
Avg. yearly inflation
Price change
$100 from 1950, at end
1950–1960
2.08%
22.8%
$123
1960–1970
2.74%
31.1%
$161
1970–1980
7.82%
112.4%
$342
1980–1982
8.22%
17.1%
$400
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1950
$100 from 1950 had already become $134 by
1966, on its way to $400 in 1982; 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 1955, the deepest deflation of the period.
Long periods are sampled every 2 years; the calculator above covers any pair of years.
The destination year: 1982
In 1982, prices rose 6.2% and $100 from 1950 had the buying
power of $400; the year's average CPI of 96.5 is the level
behind every 1982 figure on this page.
1982 was the hard bottom of the disinflation Paul Volcker had set in motion.
Consumer prices rose just 6.2% for the year, roughly half of 1981’s rate and a
fraction of the 13.5% peak from two years earlier. The price fell because
demand had been crushed: the recession that began in July 1981 did not
officially end until November 1982, and unemployment kept climbing even as
the economy technically began to recover, reaching 10.8% in November and
December, the highest rate since the Great Depression. Manufacturing and
construction, especially the auto and housing industries starved of credit by
double-digit interest rates, bore the worst of it. Abroad, Mexico’s August
announcement that it could not service its foreign debt opened a Latin
American debt crisis that spread across the region and forced the Federal
Reserve and IMF into emergency lending. The stress on the financial system
pushed Volcker to start easing interest rates that October, stepping back
from the strict money-supply targets he had followed since 1979. Markets read
the shift correctly: the Dow Jones Industrial Average bottomed at 776.92 in
mid-August, and the rally that followed became the opening leg of the 1980s
bull market. By year’s end, the trade-off Volcker had bet on was becoming
visible: much lower inflation, at the cost of the worst unemployment in 40
years.
MLA: “Inflation from 1950 to 1982: $100 is worth $400 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1950-to-1982/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1950 to 1982. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1950-to-1982/