$100 in 1950 is worth $431 in 1984,
because prices increased 331.1% over that period, an average of
4.39% a year.
$100 in 1950 has
the same buying power as
$431
in 1984
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
331.1%
Average inflation rate
4.39% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$431
Price difference ($100 base)
$331
CPI in 1950
24.1
CPI in 1984
103.9
Inflation in 1950
1.26%
Inflation in 1984
4.32%
$100 in 1950 → 1984
$431
$100 in 1984 → 1950
$23.20
What happened to prices between 1950 and 1984
Between 1950 and 1984, the Consumer Price Index went from 24.1 to 103.9.
Cumulatively, prices increased 331.1%, which works out to an average of
4.39% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1950 bought what
$0.23 buys in 1984: the 1950 dollar
lost 76.8% of its purchasing power over
these 34 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 1984 at the same ratio, 4.31: $1,000 becomes
$4,311, and $10,000 becomes $43,112.
Amount in 1950
Value in 1984
$1.00
$4.31
$5.00
$21.56
$10.00
$43.11
$20.00
$86.22
$50.00
$216
$100
$431
$500
$2,156
$1,000
$4,311
$5,000
$21,556
$10,000
$43,112
$100,000
$431,120
$1,000,000
$4,311,203
Inflation by spending category, 1950–1984
Between 1950 and 1984, medical care rose the most, up 607.3%, while apparel rose the least, up 153.3%, against 331.1% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1950
spending costs in 1984, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1950 →
All items (CPI-U)
4.39%
$431
Medical care
5.92%
$707
Transportation
4.57%
$457
Food
4.21%
$406
Apparel
2.77%
$253
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 1984
Prices climbed fastest in the 1970s, averaging 7.82% a year, and slowest in the 1950s (2.08% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1950–1984 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
1980–1984
5.97%
26.1%
$431
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1950
$100 from 1950 had already become $134 by
1966, on its way to $431 in 1984; 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: 1984
In 1984, prices rose 4.3% and $100 from 1950 had the buying
power of $431; the year's average CPI of 103.9 is the level
behind every 1984 figure on this page.
1984 was the year the recovery became a boom. Real GDP grew 7.2%, the
fastest calendar-year growth since 1951, as the tax cuts passed in 1981
combined with falling interest rates and rebuilding consumer confidence.
Unemployment, which had topped 10.8% just two years earlier, fell below
7.5%. Inflation ticked up to 4.3% from 3.2% the year before, but nothing
close to a return of the 1970s wage-price spiral: the Federal Reserve under
Paul Volcker kept policy tight enough to hold the line while growth ran hot.
The strength of the expansion, branded “Morning in America” in President
Reagan’s reelection campaign, carried him to a 49-state landslide over
Walter Mondale that November, at the time the widest electoral-vote margin
in U.S. history. For households, the numbers behind the slogan were
concrete: median income rose to about $22,400, and a gallon of gas cost
$1.13, roughly what it had cost three years earlier even as wages kept
climbing. The contrast with 1980, when 13.5% inflation and interest rates
near 20% had defined the economy, could not have been sharper.
MLA: “Inflation from 1950 to 1984: $100 is worth $431 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1950-to-1984/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1950 to 1984. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1950-to-1984/