$100 in 1951 is worth $111 in 1958,
because prices increased 11.2% over that period, an average of
1.52% a year.
$100 in 1951 has
the same buying power as
$111
in 1958
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
11.2%
Average inflation rate
1.52% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$111
Price difference ($100 base)
$11.15
CPI in 1951
26
CPI in 1958
28.9
Inflation in 1951
7.88%
Inflation in 1958
2.85%
$100 in 1951 → 1958
$111
$100 in 1958 → 1951
$89.97
What happened to prices between 1951 and 1958
Between 1951 and 1958, the Consumer Price Index went from 26 to 28.9.
Cumulatively, prices increased 11.2%, which works out to an average of
1.52% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1951 bought what
$0.90 buys in 1958: the 1951 dollar
lost 10.0% of its purchasing power over
these 7 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 1958 at the same ratio, 1.11: $1,000 becomes
$1,112, and $10,000 becomes $11,115.
Amount in 1951
Value in 1958
$1.00
$1.11
$5.00
$5.56
$10.00
$11.12
$20.00
$22.23
$50.00
$55.58
$100
$111
$500
$556
$1,000
$1,112
$5,000
$5,558
$10,000
$11,115
$100,000
$111,154
$1,000,000
$1,111,538
Inflation by spending category, 1951–1958
Between 1951 and 1958, medical care rose the most, up 29.6%, while apparel rose the least, up 1.6%, against 11.2% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1951
spending costs in 1958, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1951 →
All items (CPI-U)
1.52%
$111
Medical care
3.77%
$130
Transportation
2.48%
$119
Food
0.98%
$107
Apparel
0.23%
$102
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 $111 in 1958; 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 1958, prices rose 2.8% and $100 from 1951 had the buying
power of $111; the year's average CPI of 28.9 is the level
behind every 1958 figure on this page.
Consumer prices rose 2.8% in 1958, down only slightly from
1957’s 3.3% even as the country sank into the sharpest
postwar recession to that point, an early sign that inflation and a
shrinking economy could coexist rather than trade off against each other.
The National Bureau of Economic Research dates the downturn’s trough to
that April, with unemployment peaking near 7.5% that summer, the worst
reading since the 1930s. The Post Office raised first-class postage to 4
cents that August 1, up from 3 cents, the rate’s first change since 1932.
Washington answered the Soviet Union’s technological lead that summer
too: Eisenhower signed the National Aeronautics and Space Act on July 29,
establishing NASA, which opened for business that October 1 to compete
with the Soviet space program after the shock of Sputnik the year before.
Consumer prices finished 1958 191.9% above their 1913
level. The minimum wage held at $1.00 an hour, and first-class postage
rose to 4 cents that August, the first increase since 1932.
MLA: “Inflation from 1951 to 1958: $100 is worth $111 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1951-to-1958/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1951 to 1958. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1951-to-1958/