$100 in 1950 is worth $890 in 2009,
because prices increased 790.2% over that period, an average of
3.78% a year.
$100 in 1950 has
the same buying power as
$890
in 2009
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
790.2%
Average inflation rate
3.78% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$890
Price difference ($100 base)
$790
CPI in 1950
24.1
CPI in 2009
214.537
Inflation in 1950
1.26%
Inflation in 2009
-0.36%
$100 in 1950 → 2009
$890
$100 in 2009 → 1950
$11.23
What happened to prices between 1950 and 2009
Between 1950 and 2009, the Consumer Price Index went from 24.1 to 214.537.
Cumulatively, prices increased 790.2%, which works out to an average of
3.78% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1950 bought what
$0.11 buys in 2009: the 1950 dollar
lost 88.8% of its purchasing power over
these 59 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 2009 at the same ratio, 8.90: $1,000 becomes
$8,902, and $10,000 becomes $89,020.
Amount in 1950
Value in 2009
$1.00
$8.90
$5.00
$44.51
$10.00
$89.02
$20.00
$178
$50.00
$445
$100
$890
$500
$4,451
$1,000
$8,902
$5,000
$44,510
$10,000
$89,020
$100,000
$890,195
$1,000,000
$8,901,950
Inflation by spending category, 1950–2009
Between 1950 and 2009, medical care rose the most, up 2387.5%, while apparel rose the least, up 198.0%, against 790.2% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1950
spending costs in 2009, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1950 →
All items (CPI-U)
3.78%
$890
Medical care
5.60%
$2,488
Food
3.71%
$858
Transportation
3.56%
$790
Apparel
1.87%
$298
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 2009
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 1950–2009 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
1980–1990
4.72%
58.6%
$542
1990–2000
2.80%
31.8%
$715
2000–2009
2.47%
24.6%
$890
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1950
$100 from 1950 had already become $342 by
1980, on its way to $890 in 2009; 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: 2009
In 2009, prices fell 0.4% and $100 from 1950 had the buying
power of $890; the year's average CPI of 214.537 is the level
behind every 2009 figure on this page.
2009 is the rarest kind of year in the modern price data: one where the cost
of living went down. The CPI fell 0.4%, the first full-year deflation
since 1955, as the Great Recession hollowed out demand and oil unwound from
its $147 spike the summer before. Gasoline that had cost over $4 a gallon in
July 2008 averaged $2.35 in 2009, and that energy collapse dragged the
12-month inflation rate to −2.1% by July, the deepest reading since 1950.
Policymakers treated falling prices not as relief but as a warning: deflation
raises the real weight of debt precisely when households are drowning in it,
which is why the Federal Reserve pinned interest rates near zero, began buying
bonds by the hundreds of billions, and Washington passed a $787 billion
stimulus. The medicine took: prices stabilized within a year, and 2009 remains
the textbook case of why central banks fear deflation more than moderate
inflation.
MLA: “Inflation from 1950 to 2009: $100 is worth $890 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1950-to-2009/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1950 to 2009. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1950-to-2009/