$100 in 1950 is worth $1,074 in 2020,
because prices increased 973.9% over that period, an average of
3.45% a year.
$100 in 1950 has
the same buying power as
$1,074
in 2020
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
973.9%
Average inflation rate
3.45% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$1,074
Price difference ($100 base)
$974
CPI in 1950
24.1
CPI in 2020
258.811
Inflation in 1950
1.26%
Inflation in 2020
1.23%
$100 in 1950 → 2020
$1,074
$100 in 2020 → 1950
$9.31
What happened to prices between 1950 and 2020
Between 1950 and 2020, the Consumer Price Index went from 24.1 to 258.811.
Cumulatively, prices increased 973.9%, which works out to an average of
3.45% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1950 bought what
$0.09 buys in 2020: the 1950 dollar
lost 90.7% of its purchasing power over
these 70 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 2020 at the same ratio, 10.74: $1,000 becomes
$10,739, and $10,000 becomes $107,390.
Amount in 1950
Value in 2020
$1.00
$10.74
$5.00
$53.70
$10.00
$107
$20.00
$215
$50.00
$537
$100
$1,074
$500
$5,370
$1,000
$10,739
$5,000
$53,695
$10,000
$107,390
$100,000
$1,073,905
$1,000,000
$10,739,046
Inflation by spending category, 1950–2020
Between 1950 and 2020, medical care rose the most, up 3336.3%, while apparel rose the least, up 193.0%, against 973.9% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1950
spending costs in 2020, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1950 →
All items (CPI-U)
3.45%
$1,074
Medical care
5.18%
$3,436
Food
3.42%
$1,052
Transportation
3.17%
$887
Apparel
1.55%
$293
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 2020
Prices climbed fastest in the 1970s, averaging 7.82% a year, and slowest in the 2010s (1.73% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1950–2020 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
2010–2020
1.73%
18.7%
$1,074
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1950
$100 from 1950 had already become $446 by
1985, on its way to $1,074 in 2020; 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: 2020
In 2020, prices rose 1.2% and $100 from 1950 had the buying
power of $1,074; the year's average CPI of 258.811 is the level
behind every 2020 figure on this page.
2020 was the year the pandemic rewired the price data without triggering the
inflation spike that followed it. Consumer prices rose just 1.2% for the
year, the mildest pace since 2015, as COVID-19 lockdowns emptied roads,
closed airports, and crushed energy demand. Oil told the starkest story: on
April 20, U.S. crude futures fell to about negative $37 a barrel, the first
negative settlement in the market’s history, as storage capacity ran out and no one
wanted the physical barrels. Gasoline followed it down, falling to about
$1.80 a gallon nationally that month before recovering to average $2.17 for
the year. Grocery prices moved the other way: pantry stocking and
meatpacking-plant disruptions pushed food-at-home costs up faster than
usual, a rare case of food and energy pulling the index in opposite
directions. Washington answered with the $2.2 trillion CARES Act, signed
March 27, which sent $1,200 payments to most adults and added $600 a week
to unemployment benefits as states ordered widespread business closures.
The Federal Reserve cut its policy rate to near zero in two emergency moves
that same month and pledged to buy Treasury and mortgage bonds “in the
amounts needed” to keep credit markets working, an open-ended commitment
beyond even its 2008 response. None of it showed up in the CPI yet: the
stimulus, the supply shocks, and the reopening whiplash that followed would
build into the fastest inflation in four decades over the next two years.
MLA: “Inflation from 1950 to 2020: $100 is worth $1,074 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1950-to-2020/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1950 to 2020. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1950-to-2020/