$100 in 1951 is worth $586 in 1995,
because prices increased 486.2% over that period, an average of
4.10% a year.
$100 in 1951 has
the same buying power as
$586
in 1995
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
486.2%
Average inflation rate
4.10% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$586
Price difference ($100 base)
$486
CPI in 1951
26
CPI in 1995
152.4
Inflation in 1951
7.88%
Inflation in 1995
2.83%
$100 in 1951 → 1995
$586
$100 in 1995 → 1951
$17.06
What happened to prices between 1951 and 1995
Between 1951 and 1995, the Consumer Price Index went from 26 to 152.4.
Cumulatively, prices increased 486.2%, which works out to an average of
4.10% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1951 bought what
$0.17 buys in 1995: the 1951 dollar
lost 82.9% of its purchasing power over
these 44 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 1995 at the same ratio, 5.86: $1,000 becomes
$5,862, and $10,000 becomes $58,615.
Amount in 1951
Value in 1995
$1.00
$5.86
$5.00
$29.31
$10.00
$58.62
$20.00
$117
$50.00
$293
$100
$586
$500
$2,931
$1,000
$5,862
$5,000
$29,308
$10,000
$58,615
$100,000
$586,154
$1,000,000
$5,861,538
Inflation by spending category, 1951–1995
Between 1951 and 1995, medical care rose the most, up 1286.8%, while apparel rose the least, up 200.7%, against 486.2% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1951
spending costs in 1995, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1951 →
All items (CPI-U)
4.10%
$586
Medical care
6.16%
$1,387
Transportation
4.06%
$577
Food
3.85%
$526
Apparel
2.53%
$301
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 1995
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 1951–1995 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
1990–1995
3.12%
16.6%
$586
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1951
$100 from 1951 had already become $171 by
1973, on its way to $586 in 1995; 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: 1995
In 1995, prices rose 2.8% and $100 from 1951 had the buying
power of $586; the year's average CPI of 152.4 is the level
behind every 1995 figure on this page.
In 1995, gas averaged $1.15 a gallon, a new home cost roughly $133,900, and the median household
earned about $34,100. Inflation ran at 2.8% for the year, little changed from 1994, as the
Federal Reserve shifted from raising rates to cutting them. Having lifted its policy rate six
times the year before, the Fed judged by July that the economy had cooled enough on its own, and
trimmed rates instead, an outcome economists would later point to as a rare soft landing. The
year opened with a currency crisis: Mexico’s peso lost roughly half its value against the dollar
in a matter of weeks, and the U.S. Treasury and the IMF assembled a $50 billion rescue package,
controversial in Congress, to stabilize it and keep the crisis from spreading to other emerging
markets. Closer to home, a budget standoff between President Clinton and the Republican Congress
shut down federal agencies twice, first for five days in November and then for 21 days spanning
December into January 1996, the longest shutdown up to that point. The Postal Service raised the
cost of a first-class stamp to 32 cents in January. Low, steady inflation was about the only calm
part of 1995’s economic story.
MLA: “Inflation from 1951 to 1995: $100 is worth $586 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1951-to-1995/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1951 to 1995. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1951-to-1995/