$100 in 1951 is worth $503 in 1990,
because prices increased 402.7% over that period, an average of
4.23% a year.
$100 in 1951 has
the same buying power as
$503
in 1990
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
402.7%
Average inflation rate
4.23% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$503
Price difference ($100 base)
$403
CPI in 1951
26
CPI in 1990
130.7
Inflation in 1951
7.88%
Inflation in 1990
5.40%
$100 in 1951 → 1990
$503
$100 in 1990 → 1951
$19.89
What happened to prices between 1951 and 1990
Between 1951 and 1990, the Consumer Price Index went from 26 to 130.7.
Cumulatively, prices increased 402.7%, which works out to an average of
4.23% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1951 bought what
$0.20 buys in 1990: the 1951 dollar
lost 80.1% of its purchasing power over
these 39 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 1990 at the same ratio, 5.03: $1,000 becomes
$5,027, and $10,000 becomes $50,269.
Amount in 1951
Value in 1990
$1.00
$5.03
$5.00
$25.13
$10.00
$50.27
$20.00
$101
$50.00
$251
$100
$503
$500
$2,513
$1,000
$5,027
$5,000
$25,135
$10,000
$50,269
$100,000
$502,692
$1,000,000
$5,026,923
Inflation by spending category, 1951–1990
Between 1951 and 1990, medical care rose the most, up 923.9%, while apparel rose the least, up 182.7%, against 402.7% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1951
spending costs in 1990, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1951 →
All items (CPI-U)
4.23%
$503
Medical care
6.15%
$1,024
Transportation
4.21%
$500
Food
4.05%
$470
Apparel
2.70%
$283
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 1990
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 1951–1990 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
1980–1990
4.72%
58.6%
$503
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1951
$100 from 1951 had already become $156 by
1971, on its way to $503 in 1990; 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: 1990
In 1990, prices rose 5.4% and $100 from 1951 had the buying
power of $503; the year's average CPI of 130.7 is the level
behind every 1990 figure on this page.
In 1990, the median U.S. household earned about $29,900, gas averaged $1.15 a
gallon, and mailing a letter cost a quarter. Inflation ran hot at 5.4% for the
year, its highest rate since 1982, pushed up by an oil shock after Iraq’s
invasion of Kuwait, and the economy tipped into recession that summer. It was
the last gasp of elevated inflation before the long calm of the 1990s.
MLA: “Inflation from 1951 to 1990: $100 is worth $503 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1951-to-1990/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1951 to 1990. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1951-to-1990/