$100 in 1951 is worth $190 in 1974,
because prices increased 89.6% over that period, an average of
2.82% a year.
$100 in 1951 has
the same buying power as
$190
in 1974
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
89.6%
Average inflation rate
2.82% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$190
Price difference ($100 base)
$89.62
CPI in 1951
26
CPI in 1974
49.3
Inflation in 1951
7.88%
Inflation in 1974
11.04%
$100 in 1951 → 1974
$190
$100 in 1974 → 1951
$52.74
What happened to prices between 1951 and 1974
Between 1951 and 1974, the Consumer Price Index went from 26 to 49.3.
Cumulatively, prices increased 89.6%, which works out to an average of
2.82% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1951 bought what
$0.53 buys in 1974: the 1951 dollar
lost 47.3% of its purchasing power over
these 23 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 1974 at the same ratio, 1.90: $1,000 becomes
$1,896, and $10,000 becomes $18,962.
Amount in 1951
Value in 1974
$1.00
$1.90
$5.00
$9.48
$10.00
$18.96
$20.00
$37.92
$50.00
$94.81
$100
$190
$500
$948
$1,000
$1,896
$5,000
$9,481
$10,000
$18,962
$100,000
$189,615
$1,000,000
$1,896,154
Inflation by spending category, 1951–1974
Between 1951 and 1974, medical care rose the most, up 166.7%, while apparel rose the least, up 58.1%, against 89.6% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1951
spending costs in 1974, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1951 →
All items (CPI-U)
2.82%
$190
Medical care
4.36%
$267
Food
2.96%
$195
Transportation
2.83%
$190
Apparel
2.01%
$158
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–).
Decade by decade: 1951 to 1974
Prices climbed fastest in the 1970s, averaging 6.17% a year, and slowest in the 1950s (1.45% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1951–1974 change:
Years
Avg. yearly inflation
Price change
$100 from 1951, at end
1951–1960
1.45%
13.8%
$114
1960–1970
2.74%
31.1%
$149
1970–1974
6.17%
27.1%
$190
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1951
$100 from 1951 had already become $116 by
1962, on its way to $190 in 1974; each row shows the CPI, that
year's inflation rate, and the running value.
Within the span, inflation peaked at 11.0% in 1974, and prices fell 0.4% in 1955, the deepest deflation of the period.
In 1974, prices rose 11.0% and $100 from 1951 had the buying
power of $190; the year's average CPI of 49.3 is the level
behind every 1974 figure on this page.
1974 was the year the postwar economy broke its old rules. Consumer prices
rose 11.0%, the fastest annual increase since 1947, as the Arab oil embargo
that ran from October 1973 to March 1974 roughly quadrupled the price of
crude oil worldwide. Gasoline, which had averaged 38.5 cents a gallon in
1973, jumped to 53.2 cents, and shortages forced many states into odd-even
rationing at the pump. Nixon’s wage and price controls, in place in some form
since 1971, expired at the end of April, removing the last brake on prices
just as the oil shock hit. Nixon himself resigned in August over Watergate,
and Gerald Ford’s response to inflation, a voluntary “Whip Inflation Now”
campaign built around lapel buttons, became a symbol of how little
conventional politics could do against the problem. Prices kept climbing even
as the economy weakened: a recession that started in November 1973 dragged
on, the Dow fell to a bear-market bottom of 577.60 in December, and
unemployment was already rising toward the 9% it would reach in 1975. The
combination of rising prices and a shrinking economy gave the decade its
name: stagflation.
MLA: “Inflation from 1951 to 1974: $100 is worth $190 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1951-to-1974/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1951 to 1974. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1951-to-1974/