$100 in 1951 is worth $556 in 1993,
because prices increased 455.8% over that period, an average of
4.17% a year.
$100 in 1951 has
the same buying power as
$556
in 1993
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
455.8%
Average inflation rate
4.17% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$556
Price difference ($100 base)
$456
CPI in 1951
26
CPI in 1993
144.5
Inflation in 1951
7.88%
Inflation in 1993
2.99%
$100 in 1951 → 1993
$556
$100 in 1993 → 1951
$17.99
What happened to prices between 1951 and 1993
Between 1951 and 1993, the Consumer Price Index went from 26 to 144.5.
Cumulatively, prices increased 455.8%, which works out to an average of
4.17% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1951 bought what
$0.18 buys in 1993: the 1951 dollar
lost 82.0% of its purchasing power over
these 42 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 1993 at the same ratio, 5.56: $1,000 becomes
$5,558, and $10,000 becomes $55,577.
Amount in 1951
Value in 1993
$1.00
$5.56
$5.00
$27.79
$10.00
$55.58
$20.00
$111
$50.00
$278
$100
$556
$500
$2,779
$1,000
$5,558
$5,000
$27,788
$10,000
$55,577
$100,000
$555,769
$1,000,000
$5,557,692
Inflation by spending category, 1951–1993
Between 1951 and 1993, medical care rose the most, up 1166.7%, while apparel rose the least, up 204.6%, against 455.8% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1951
spending costs in 1993, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1951 →
All items (CPI-U)
4.17%
$556
Medical care
6.23%
$1,267
Transportation
4.10%
$541
Food
3.90%
$500
Apparel
2.69%
$305
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 1993
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 1951–1993 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
1990–1993
3.40%
10.6%
$556
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1951
$100 from 1951 had already become $156 by
1971, on its way to $556 in 1993; 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: 1993
In 1993, prices rose 3.0% and $100 from 1951 had the buying
power of $556; the year's average CPI of 144.5 is the level
behind every 1993 figure on this page.
By 1993, the median household earned about $31,200, gas averaged $1.11 a gallon, and a new home
cost roughly $126,500. Inflation ran at 3.0% for the year, holding close to where it had settled
the year before as the recovery slowly gathered strength. Washington spent much of the year on
two pieces of unfinished business from the recession: a deficit-reduction package, the Omnibus
Budget Reconciliation Act, that raised the top income tax rate to 39.6% to start narrowing a
budget gap left over from the 1980s, and a trade deal, the North American Free Trade Agreement,
that President Clinton signed into law in December after a contentious fight in Congress. NAFTA
phased out most tariffs between the U.S., Mexico, and Canada and took effect the following
January. The year’s other defining event had nothing to do with the economy: in February, a bomb
exploded in the World Trade Center’s parking garage, killing six people and injuring more than a
thousand. By year’s end, the pieces of the decade’s later economic story, freer trade, a
shrinking deficit, and inflation holding near 3%, were already in place.
MLA: “Inflation from 1951 to 1993: $100 is worth $556 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1951-to-1993/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1951 to 1993. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1951-to-1993/