$100 in 1951 is worth $350 in 1981,
because prices increased 249.6% over that period, an average of
4.26% a year.
$100 in 1951 has
the same buying power as
$350
in 1981
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
249.6%
Average inflation rate
4.26% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$350
Price difference ($100 base)
$250
CPI in 1951
26
CPI in 1981
90.9
Inflation in 1951
7.88%
Inflation in 1981
10.32%
$100 in 1951 → 1981
$350
$100 in 1981 → 1951
$28.60
What happened to prices between 1951 and 1981
Between 1951 and 1981, the Consumer Price Index went from 26 to 90.9.
Cumulatively, prices increased 249.6%, which works out to an average of
4.26% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1951 bought what
$0.29 buys in 1981: the 1951 dollar
lost 71.4% of its purchasing power over
these 30 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 1981 at the same ratio, 3.50: $1,000 becomes
$3,496, and $10,000 becomes $34,962.
Amount in 1951
Value in 1981
$1.00
$3.50
$5.00
$17.48
$10.00
$34.96
$20.00
$69.92
$50.00
$175
$100
$350
$500
$1,748
$1,000
$3,496
$5,000
$17,481
$10,000
$34,962
$100,000
$349,615
$1,000,000
$3,496,154
Inflation by spending category, 1951–1981
Between 1951 and 1981, medical care rose the most, up 421.4%, while apparel rose the least, up 117.1%, against 249.6% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1951
spending costs in 1981, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1951 →
All items (CPI-U)
4.26%
$350
Medical care
5.66%
$521
Transportation
4.61%
$387
Food
4.08%
$332
Apparel
2.62%
$217
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 1981
Prices climbed fastest in the 1980s, averaging 10.32% a year, and slowest in the 1950s (1.45% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1951–1981 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
1980–1981
10.32%
10.3%
$350
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1951
$100 from 1951 had already become $125 by
1966, on its way to $350 in 1981; 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 1981, prices rose 10.3% and $100 from 1951 had the buying
power of $350; the year's average CPI of 90.9 is the level
behind every 1981 figure on this page.
1981 was the year the inflation fever finally broke, at an extraordinary price.
Consumer prices rose 10.3%, the second year of back-to-back double-digit
inflation and the last time the U.S. would see one. To end it, Paul Volcker’s
Federal Reserve drove its policy rate above 19% and let borrowing costs go
where they may: a 30-year mortgage cost more than 18% by autumn, car loans and
business credit froze, and homebuilders mailed the Fed two-by-fours in protest.
The squeeze tipped the economy into recession in July, the deep 1981–82
downturn that would push unemployment past 10%. But it worked. Inflation fell
by nearly half within a year and to under 4% by 1983, the disinflation that
defined the following two decades. Even the price of mailing a letter told the
year’s story: postage went up twice in eight months.
MLA: “Inflation from 1951 to 1981: $100 is worth $350 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1951-to-1981/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1951 to 1981. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1951-to-1981/