$100 in 1951 is worth $455 in 1988,
because prices increased 355.0% over that period, an average of
4.18% a year.
$100 in 1951 has
the same buying power as
$455
in 1988
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
355.0%
Average inflation rate
4.18% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$455
Price difference ($100 base)
$355
CPI in 1951
26
CPI in 1988
118.3
Inflation in 1951
7.88%
Inflation in 1988
4.14%
$100 in 1951 → 1988
$455
$100 in 1988 → 1951
$21.98
What happened to prices between 1951 and 1988
Between 1951 and 1988, the Consumer Price Index went from 26 to 118.3.
Cumulatively, prices increased 355.0%, which works out to an average of
4.18% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1951 bought what
$0.22 buys in 1988: the 1951 dollar
lost 78.0% of its purchasing power over
these 37 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 1988 at the same ratio, 4.55: $1,000 becomes
$4,550, and $10,000 becomes $45,500.
Amount in 1951
Value in 1988
$1.00
$4.55
$5.00
$22.75
$10.00
$45.50
$20.00
$91.00
$50.00
$228
$100
$455
$500
$2,275
$1,000
$4,550
$5,000
$22,750
$10,000
$45,500
$100,000
$455,000
$1,000,000
$4,550,000
Inflation by spending category, 1951–1988
Between 1951 and 1988, medical care rose the most, up 771.7%, while apparel rose the least, up 162.9%, against 355.0% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1951
spending costs in 1988, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1951 →
All items (CPI-U)
4.18%
$455
Medical care
6.03%
$872
Transportation
4.16%
$451
Food
3.95%
$419
Apparel
2.65%
$263
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 1988
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 1951–1988 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
1980–1988
4.62%
43.6%
$455
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1951
$100 from 1951 had already become $141 by
1969, on its way to $455 in 1988; 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: 1988
In 1988, prices rose 4.1% and $100 from 1951 had the buying
power of $455; the year's average CPI of 118.3 is the level
behind every 1988 figure on this page.
By 1988, the economic expansion that began in the ashes of the 1981-82
recession was in its sixth year, and the Federal Reserve was watching for
signs it had run too long. Inflation rose to 4.1%, up from 3.6% the year
before, while unemployment fell to its lowest level since 1974. Alan
Greenspan’s Fed responded by raising the federal funds rate through the
year, from about 6.5% to 8.5%, trying to cool demand before prices
accelerated the way they had in the 1970s. Households still felt the
difference between this expansion and the last one: gas held near 90 cents
a gallon, almost exactly its 1987 price, and median household income rose
to roughly $27,200. The one price that moved was postage, which rose from
22 to 25 cents in April, the fourth increase of the decade but a far
gentler pace than the string of increases in the late 1970s and early
1980s. In November, Vice President George H.W. Bush won the presidency on
the strength of the expansion, promising in his nomination speech to hold
the line on taxes. Both the boom and that pledge would run into trouble
within two years, as the Fed’s rate increases helped tip the economy toward
the 1990-91 recession.
MLA: “Inflation from 1951 to 1988: $100 is worth $455 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1951-to-1988/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1951 to 1988. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1951-to-1988/