$100 in 1950 is worth $933 in 2011,
because prices increased 833.4% over that period, an average of
3.73% a year.
$100 in 1950 has
the same buying power as
$933
in 2011
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
833.4%
Average inflation rate
3.73% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$933
Price difference ($100 base)
$833
CPI in 1950
24.1
CPI in 2011
224.939
Inflation in 1950
1.26%
Inflation in 2011
3.16%
$100 in 1950 → 2011
$933
$100 in 2011 → 1950
$10.71
What happened to prices between 1950 and 2011
Between 1950 and 2011, the Consumer Price Index went from 24.1 to 224.939.
Cumulatively, prices increased 833.4%, which works out to an average of
3.73% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1950 bought what
$0.11 buys in 2011: the 1950 dollar
lost 89.3% of its purchasing power over
these 61 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 2011 at the same ratio, 9.33: $1,000 becomes
$9,334, and $10,000 becomes $93,336.
Amount in 1950
Value in 2011
$1.00
$9.33
$5.00
$46.67
$10.00
$93.34
$20.00
$187
$50.00
$467
$100
$933
$500
$4,667
$1,000
$9,334
$5,000
$46,668
$10,000
$93,336
$100,000
$933,357
$1,000,000
$9,333,568
Inflation by spending category, 1950–2011
Between 1950 and 2011, medical care rose the most, up 2550.7%, while apparel rose the least, up 203.0%, against 833.4% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1950
spending costs in 2011, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1950 →
All items (CPI-U)
3.73%
$933
Medical care
5.52%
$2,651
Transportation
3.73%
$936
Food
3.66%
$897
Apparel
1.83%
$303
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 2011
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 1950–2011 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
2000–2010
2.39%
26.6%
$905
2010–2011
3.16%
3.2%
$933
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1950
$100 from 1950 had already become $342 by
1980, on its way to $933 in 2011; 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 5 years; the calculator above covers any pair of years.
The destination year: 2011
In 2011, prices rose 3.2% and $100 from 1950 had the buying
power of $933; the year's average CPI of 224.939 is the level
behind every 2011 figure on this page.
2011 brought the fastest inflation of the post-recession recovery. Consumer
prices rose 3.2%, roughly double the 2010 pace, and the cause was mostly at the
pump and the grocery store. Unrest across the Middle East and North Africa,
including the war in Libya, pushed gasoline to an annual average of $3.52 a
gallon, the highest yearly figure recorded to that point. Food prices also
rose faster than the overall index.
Household budgets did not keep up. The median household income was $50,054,
barely above the year before, and the median new home sold for about $227,200.
The federal minimum wage stayed at $7.25 and a first-class stamp at 44 cents.
Policy stayed loose. The Federal Reserve kept its policy rate near zero and
launched Operation Twist in September to lower long-term rates. Washington
spent the summer in a debt-ceiling fight that ended in S&P’s August downgrade
of the U.S. credit rating. The inflation spike proved temporary: the
2011 rate was the high point of the early 2010s, and prices grew more slowly
in every year that followed until 2017.
MLA: “Inflation from 1950 to 2011: $100 is worth $933 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1950-to-2011/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1950 to 2011. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1950-to-2011/