$100 in 1951 is worth $108 in 1957,
because prices increased 8.1% over that period, an average of
1.30% a year.
$100 in 1951 has
the same buying power as
$108
in 1957
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
8.1%
Average inflation rate
1.30% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$108
Price difference ($100 base)
$8.08
CPI in 1951
26
CPI in 1957
28.1
Inflation in 1951
7.88%
Inflation in 1957
3.31%
$100 in 1951 → 1957
$108
$100 in 1957 → 1951
$92.53
What happened to prices between 1951 and 1957
Between 1951 and 1957, the Consumer Price Index went from 26 to 28.1.
Cumulatively, prices increased 8.1%, which works out to an average of
1.30% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1951 bought what
$0.93 buys in 1957: the 1951 dollar
lost 7.5% of its purchasing power over
these 6 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 1957 at the same ratio, 1.08: $1,000 becomes
$1,081, and $10,000 becomes $10,808.
Amount in 1951
Value in 1957
$1.00
$1.08
$5.00
$5.40
$10.00
$10.81
$20.00
$21.62
$50.00
$54.04
$100
$108
$500
$540
$1,000
$1,081
$5,000
$5,404
$10,000
$10,808
$100,000
$108,077
$1,000,000
$1,080,769
Inflation by spending category, 1951–1957
Between 1951 and 1957, medical care rose the most, up 23.9%, while apparel rose the least, up 1.4%, against 8.1% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1951
spending costs in 1957, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1951 →
All items (CPI-U)
1.30%
$108
Medical care
3.64%
$124
Transportation
2.35%
$115
Food
0.41%
$102
Apparel
0.23%
$101
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 1951 had already become $103 by
1954, on its way to $108 in 1957; each row shows the CPI, that
year's inflation rate, and the running value.
Within the span, inflation peaked at 3.3% in 1957, and prices fell 0.4% in 1955, the deepest deflation of the period.
In 1957, prices rose 3.3% and $100 from 1951 had the buying
power of $108; the year's average CPI of 28.1 is the level
behind every 1957 figure on this page.
Consumer prices rose 3.3% in 1957, up from 1956’s 1.5% and
the sharpest increase since the Korean War price surge of 1951. The jump
fed a growing debate among economists over “cost-push” inflation, prices
climbing from rising wages and material costs rather than excess demand,
a debate that would recur for the next quarter century. The Federal
Reserve tightened policy to fight it, and by August the tighter money
combined with falling business investment to tip the economy into a
recession, according to the National Bureau of Economic Research’s
dating. The Cold War took a technological turn that October, when the
Soviet Union launched Sputnik, the first artificial satellite, on the
4th, stunning the American public and setting off both the Space Race and
a surge in federal science and defense spending the following year. Civil
rights reached a crisis that September in Little Rock, Arkansas: after
Governor Orval Faubus used the National Guard to block nine Black
students from Central High School, Eisenhower federalized the Guard and
sent the 101st Airborne Division to enforce the Supreme Court’s
desegregation order. Consumer prices finished 1957 183.8% above their
1913 level. First-class postage held at 3 cents, and the
minimum wage stood at $1.00 an hour.
MLA: “Inflation from 1951 to 1957: $100 is worth $108 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1951-to-1957/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1951 to 1957. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1951-to-1957/