$100 in 1951 is worth $102 in 1952,
because prices increased 1.9% over that period, an average of
1.92% a year.
$100 in 1951 has
the same buying power as
$102
in 1952
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
1.9%
Average inflation rate
1.92% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$102
Price difference ($100 base)
$1.92
CPI in 1951
26
CPI in 1952
26.5
Inflation in 1951
7.88%
Inflation in 1952
1.92%
$100 in 1951 → 1952
$102
$100 in 1952 → 1951
$98.11
What happened to prices between 1951 and 1952
Between 1951 and 1952, the Consumer Price Index went from 26 to 26.5.
Cumulatively, prices increased 1.9%, which works out to an average of
1.92% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1951 bought what
$0.98 buys in 1952: the 1951 dollar
lost 1.9% of its purchasing power over
these 1 years.
Consumer prices rose 7.9% in 1951, up sharply from 1950’s
1.3% and the fastest increase since 1947, as Korean War buying and a
defense spending surge hit an economy still adjusting to peacetime. Much
of the jump came early in the year, before the government stepped in: the
Office of Price Stabilization imposed a general ceiling on prices January
26, and the Wage Stabilization Board froze wages soon after, the broadest
peacetime controls since the war began that June. The year’s more lasting
change came in monetary policy. On March 4, the Treasury and the Federal
Reserve signed the Accord, ending the Fed’s wartime obligation to hold
down interest rates on government bonds and freeing the central bank to
fight inflation on its own terms for the first time since 1942, a shift
that would shape Fed independence for decades. Congress raised taxes that
October to help pay for the war: the Revenue Act of 1951, signed October
20, lifted individual and corporate income taxes along with a range of
excise taxes, the third increase in taxes since fighting began in Korea.
Consumer prices finished 1951 162.6% above their 1913
level. First-class postage held at 3 cents, and the minimum wage stayed at
75 cents an hour.
Every 1951 amount converts to 1952 at the same ratio, 1.02: $1,000 becomes
$1,019, and $10,000 becomes $10,192.
Amount in 1951
Value in 1952
$1.00
$1.02
$5.00
$5.10
$10.00
$10.19
$20.00
$20.38
$50.00
$50.96
$100
$102
$500
$510
$1,000
$1,019
$5,000
$5,096
$10,000
$10,192
$100,000
$101,923
$1,000,000
$1,019,231
Inflation by spending category, 1951–1952
Between 1951 and 1952, transportation rose the most, up 6.6%, while apparel fell 0.9%, against 1.9% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1951
spending costs in 1952, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1951 →
All items (CPI-U)
1.92%
$102
Transportation
6.64%
$107
Medical care
5.03%
$105
Food
1.77%
$102
Apparel
-0.91%
$99.09
Not shown because the BLS began these indexes after 1951: core (all items less food & energy) (1957–), energy (1957–), housing (1967–), recreation (1993–), education & communication (1993–).
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1951
$100 from 1951grew to $102 by 1952; each row
shows the CPI, that year's inflation rate, and the running value.
In 1952, prices rose 1.9% and $100 from 1951 had the buying
power of $102; the year's average CPI of 26.5 is the level
behind every 1952 figure on this page.
Consumer prices rose 1.9% in 1952, down sharply from 1951’s
7.9% as the price and wage controls imposed the year before held the cost
of living in check even with the Korean War still underway. Labor strife
tested those controls that spring: to head off a strike that could have
disrupted war production, President Truman ordered the government to
seize the steel industry that April, over the objections of steel
companies fighting the price the Office of Price Stabilization had set for
their product. The Supreme Court ruled the seizure unconstitutional in
Youngstown Sheet & Tube Co. v. Sawyer that June, a landmark limit on
presidential power, and steelworkers then struck for 53 days before a
settlement. Politics delivered the year’s biggest change that November:
Dwight Eisenhower defeated Adlai Stevenson, promising to “go to Korea” to
end the war and returning Republicans to the White House for the first
time since 1933. The Cold War’s technological edge sharpened that same
month, when the United States tested the first hydrogen bomb at Enewetak
Atoll on November 1, a device hundreds of times more powerful than the
atomic bombs used against Japan in 1945. Consumer prices finished 1952
167.7% above their 1913 level. First-class postage held at
3 cents, and the minimum wage stayed at 75 cents an hour.
MLA: “Inflation from 1951 to 1952: $100 is worth $102 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1951-to-1952/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1951 to 1952. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1951-to-1952/