$100 in 1951 is worth $371 in 1982,
because prices increased 271.2% over that period, an average of
4.32% a year.
$100 in 1951 has
the same buying power as
$371
in 1982
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
271.2%
Average inflation rate
4.32% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$371
Price difference ($100 base)
$271
CPI in 1951
26
CPI in 1982
96.5
Inflation in 1951
7.88%
Inflation in 1982
6.16%
$100 in 1951 → 1982
$371
$100 in 1982 → 1951
$26.94
What happened to prices between 1951 and 1982
Between 1951 and 1982, the Consumer Price Index went from 26 to 96.5.
Cumulatively, prices increased 271.2%, which works out to an average of
4.32% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1951 bought what
$0.27 buys in 1982: the 1951 dollar
lost 73.1% of its purchasing power over
these 31 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 1982 at the same ratio, 3.71: $1,000 becomes
$3,712, and $10,000 becomes $37,115.
Amount in 1951
Value in 1982
$1.00
$3.71
$5.00
$18.56
$10.00
$37.12
$20.00
$74.23
$50.00
$186
$100
$371
$500
$1,856
$1,000
$3,712
$5,000
$18,558
$10,000
$37,115
$100,000
$371,154
$1,000,000
$3,711,538
Inflation by spending category, 1951–1982
Between 1951 and 1982, medical care rose the most, up 481.8%, while apparel rose the least, up 122.8%, against 271.2% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1951
spending costs in 1982, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1951 →
All items (CPI-U)
4.32%
$371
Medical care
5.84%
$582
Transportation
4.59%
$402
Food
4.08%
$345
Apparel
2.62%
$223
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 1982
Prices climbed fastest in the 1980s, averaging 8.22% a year, and slowest in the 1950s (1.45% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1951–1982 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
1980–1982
8.22%
17.1%
$371
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1951
$100 from 1951 had already become $128 by
1967, on its way to $371 in 1982; 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.
Long periods are sampled every 2 years; the calculator above covers any pair of years.
The destination year: 1982
In 1982, prices rose 6.2% and $100 from 1951 had the buying
power of $371; the year's average CPI of 96.5 is the level
behind every 1982 figure on this page.
1982 was the hard bottom of the disinflation Paul Volcker had set in motion.
Consumer prices rose just 6.2% for the year, roughly half of 1981’s rate and a
fraction of the 13.5% peak from two years earlier. The price fell because
demand had been crushed: the recession that began in July 1981 did not
officially end until November 1982, and unemployment kept climbing even as
the economy technically began to recover, reaching 10.8% in November and
December, the highest rate since the Great Depression. Manufacturing and
construction, especially the auto and housing industries starved of credit by
double-digit interest rates, bore the worst of it. Abroad, Mexico’s August
announcement that it could not service its foreign debt opened a Latin
American debt crisis that spread across the region and forced the Federal
Reserve and IMF into emergency lending. The stress on the financial system
pushed Volcker to start easing interest rates that October, stepping back
from the strict money-supply targets he had followed since 1979. Markets read
the shift correctly: the Dow Jones Industrial Average bottomed at 776.92 in
mid-August, and the rally that followed became the opening leg of the 1980s
bull market. By year’s end, the trade-off Volcker had bet on was becoming
visible: much lower inflation, at the cost of the worst unemployment in 40
years.
MLA: “Inflation from 1951 to 1982: $100 is worth $371 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1951-to-1982/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1951 to 1982. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1951-to-1982/