$100 in 1951 is worth $570 in 1994,
because prices increased 470.0% over that period, an average of
4.13% a year.
$100 in 1951 has
the same buying power as
$570
in 1994
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
470.0%
Average inflation rate
4.13% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$570
Price difference ($100 base)
$470
CPI in 1951
26
CPI in 1994
148.2
Inflation in 1951
7.88%
Inflation in 1994
2.56%
$100 in 1951 → 1994
$570
$100 in 1994 → 1951
$17.54
What happened to prices between 1951 and 1994
Between 1951 and 1994, the Consumer Price Index went from 26 to 148.2.
Cumulatively, prices increased 470.0%, which works out to an average of
4.13% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1951 bought what
$0.18 buys in 1994: the 1951 dollar
lost 82.5% of its purchasing power over
these 43 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 1994 at the same ratio, 5.70: $1,000 becomes
$5,700, and $10,000 becomes $57,000.
Amount in 1951
Value in 1994
$1.00
$5.70
$5.00
$28.50
$10.00
$57.00
$20.00
$114
$50.00
$285
$100
$570
$500
$2,850
$1,000
$5,700
$5,000
$28,500
$10,000
$57,000
$100,000
$570,000
$1,000,000
$5,700,000
Inflation by spending category, 1951–1994
Between 1951 and 1994, medical care rose the most, up 1227.0%, while apparel rose the least, up 203.9%, against 470.0% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1951
spending costs in 1994, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1951 →
All items (CPI-U)
4.13%
$570
Medical care
6.20%
$1,327
Transportation
4.08%
$557
Food
3.87%
$512
Apparel
2.62%
$304
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 1994
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 1951–1994 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
1990–1994
3.19%
13.4%
$570
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1951
$100 from 1951 had already become $171 by
1973, on its way to $570 in 1994; 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: 1994
In 1994, prices rose 2.6% and $100 from 1951 had the buying
power of $570; the year's average CPI of 148.2 is the level
behind every 1994 figure on this page.
Gas averaged $1.11 a gallon in 1994, a new home cost roughly $130,000, and the median household
earned about $32,300. Inflation ran at 2.6% for the year, the calmest reading since the
mid-1980s, even as the Federal Reserve spent the year raising interest rates precisely to keep
it that way. Chair Alan Greenspan’s Fed lifted the federal funds rate from 3% to 5.5% over six
moves, a preemptive tightening campaign meant to head off inflation before it built rather than
react to it after the fact. The bond market, unprepared for such a rapid climb, sold off
sharply, and the higher rates rippled into places few had expected: Orange County, California,
whose investment pool had bet heavily on rates staying low, filed for bankruptcy in December
after losing an estimated $1.7 billion, the largest municipal bankruptcy in the country’s
history at the time. On the trade front, NAFTA took effect January 1, phasing out tariffs on
thousands of goods moving between the U.S., Mexico, and Canada, the start of a schedule that
would eliminate most remaining barriers over the following decade. It was a year that showed
inflation control could have its own costs, paid out in the bond market and, in Orange County’s
case, a bankruptcy court.
MLA: “Inflation from 1951 to 1994: $100 is worth $570 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1951-to-1994/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1951 to 1994. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1951-to-1994/