$100 in 1951 is worth $317 in 1980,
because prices increased 216.9% over that period, an average of
4.06% a year.
$100 in 1951 has
the same buying power as
$317
in 1980
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
216.9%
Average inflation rate
4.06% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$317
Price difference ($100 base)
$217
CPI in 1951
26
CPI in 1980
82.4
Inflation in 1951
7.88%
Inflation in 1980
13.50%
$100 in 1951 → 1980
$317
$100 in 1980 → 1951
$31.55
What happened to prices between 1951 and 1980
Between 1951 and 1980, the Consumer Price Index went from 26 to 82.4.
Cumulatively, prices increased 216.9%, which works out to an average of
4.06% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1951 bought what
$0.32 buys in 1980: the 1951 dollar
lost 68.4% of its purchasing power over
these 29 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 1980 at the same ratio, 3.17: $1,000 becomes
$3,169, and $10,000 becomes $31,692.
Amount in 1951
Value in 1980
$1.00
$3.17
$5.00
$15.85
$10.00
$31.69
$20.00
$63.38
$50.00
$158
$100
$317
$500
$1,585
$1,000
$3,169
$5,000
$15,846
$10,000
$31,692
$100,000
$316,923
$1,000,000
$3,169,231
Inflation by spending category, 1951–1980
Between 1951 and 1980, medical care rose the most, up 371.1%, while apparel rose the least, up 107.1%, against 216.9% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1951
spending costs in 1980, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1951 →
All items (CPI-U)
4.06%
$317
Medical care
5.49%
$471
Transportation
4.36%
$345
Food
3.95%
$308
Apparel
2.54%
$207
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 1980
Prices climbed fastest in the 1970s, averaging 7.82% a year, and slowest in the 1950s (1.45% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1951–1980 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
1970–1980
7.82%
112.4%
$317
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1951
$100 from 1951 had already become $121 by
1965, on its way to $317 in 1980; 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.
In 1980, prices rose 13.5% and $100 from 1951 had the buying
power of $317; the year's average CPI of 82.4 is the level
behind every 1980 figure on this page.
1980 sat at the very peak of the Great Inflation. Prices rose 13.5% in that
single year, mortgage rates were climbing toward 16%, and the Federal Reserve
under Paul Volcker was administering the painful interest-rate medicine that
would finally break the inflationary spiral, at the cost of the deep 1981–82
recession. No single year looms larger in how Americans think about inflation.
MLA: “Inflation from 1951 to 1980: $100 is worth $317 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1951-to-1980/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1951 to 1980. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1951-to-1980/