$100 in 1950 is worth $515 in 1989,
because prices increased 414.5% over that period, an average of
4.29% a year.
$100 in 1950 has
the same buying power as
$515
in 1989
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
414.5%
Average inflation rate
4.29% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$515
Price difference ($100 base)
$415
CPI in 1950
24.1
CPI in 1989
124
Inflation in 1950
1.26%
Inflation in 1989
4.82%
$100 in 1950 → 1989
$515
$100 in 1989 → 1950
$19.44
What happened to prices between 1950 and 1989
Between 1950 and 1989, the Consumer Price Index went from 24.1 to 124.
Cumulatively, prices increased 414.5%, which works out to an average of
4.29% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1950 bought what
$0.19 buys in 1989: the 1950 dollar
lost 80.6% of its purchasing power over
these 39 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 1989 at the same ratio, 5.15: $1,000 becomes
$5,145, and $10,000 becomes $51,452.
Amount in 1950
Value in 1989
$1.00
$5.15
$5.00
$25.73
$10.00
$51.45
$20.00
$103
$50.00
$257
$100
$515
$500
$2,573
$1,000
$5,145
$5,000
$25,726
$10,000
$51,452
$100,000
$514,523
$1,000,000
$5,145,228
Inflation by spending category, 1950–1989
Between 1950 and 1989, medical care rose the most, up 888.7%, while apparel rose the least, up 194.3%, against 414.5% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1950
spending costs in 1989, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1950 →
All items (CPI-U)
4.29%
$515
Medical care
6.05%
$989
Transportation
4.23%
$503
Food
4.17%
$493
Apparel
2.81%
$294
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 1989
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 1950–1989 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
1980–1989
4.65%
50.5%
$515
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1950
$100 from 1950 had already become $161 by
1970, on its way to $515 in 1989; 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: 1989
In 1989, prices rose 4.8% and $100 from 1950 had the buying
power of $515; the year's average CPI of 124 is the level
behind every 1989 figure on this page.
1989 closed out a decade that began in economic crisis and ended in a long,
calmer expansion. Inflation for the year came in at 4.8%, higher than the
mid-decade lull but still roughly a third of the 13.5% peak that had opened
the decade in 1980. The federal minimum wage, unchanged at $3.35 an hour
since January 1981, had gone longer without an increase than at any point
since Congress created it, and had lost close to a third of its purchasing
power to inflation in the meantime; lawmakers would finally raise it to
$3.80 the following April. The decade’s other unfinished business came due
in August, when Congress passed FIRREA, the law that created the Resolution
Trust Corporation to seize and sell off the hundreds of savings and loan
institutions that a decade of deregulation and risky lending had left
insolvent, a bailout that eventually cost taxpayers over $100 billion. On
Wall Street, the recovery was already complete: the Dow Jones Industrial
Average closed 1989 at a record high, just over two years after Black
Monday’s 22.6% single-day crash, capping the bull market that had begun at
the Dow’s 776 low in August 1982. Between the S&L bailout, a wage floor
eroded by years without a raise, and a stock market at new highs, 1989
captured how unevenly the decade’s disinflation had been felt.
MLA: “Inflation from 1950 to 1989: $100 is worth $515 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1950-to-1989/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1950 to 1989. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1950-to-1989/