$100 in 1951 is worth $627 in 1998,
because prices increased 526.9% over that period, an average of
3.98% a year.
$100 in 1951 has
the same buying power as
$627
in 1998
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
526.9%
Average inflation rate
3.98% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$627
Price difference ($100 base)
$527
CPI in 1951
26
CPI in 1998
163
Inflation in 1951
7.88%
Inflation in 1998
1.56%
$100 in 1951 → 1998
$627
$100 in 1998 → 1951
$15.95
What happened to prices between 1951 and 1998
Between 1951 and 1998, the Consumer Price Index went from 26 to 163.
Cumulatively, prices increased 526.9%, which works out to an average of
3.98% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1951 bought what
$0.16 buys in 1998: the 1951 dollar
lost 84.0% of its purchasing power over
these 47 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 1998 at the same ratio, 6.27: $1,000 becomes
$6,269, and $10,000 becomes $62,692.
Amount in 1951
Value in 1998
$1.00
$6.27
$5.00
$31.35
$10.00
$62.69
$20.00
$125
$50.00
$313
$100
$627
$500
$3,135
$1,000
$6,269
$5,000
$31,346
$10,000
$62,692
$100,000
$626,923
$1,000,000
$6,269,231
Inflation by spending category, 1951–1998
Between 1951 and 1998, medical care rose the most, up 1422.6%, while apparel rose the least, up 203.0%, against 526.9% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1951
spending costs in 1998, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1951 →
All items (CPI-U)
3.98%
$627
Medical care
5.96%
$1,523
Transportation
3.84%
$588
Food
3.77%
$570
Apparel
2.39%
$303
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 1998
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 1951–1998 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
1990–1998
2.80%
24.7%
$627
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1951
$100 from 1951 had already become $207 by
1975, on its way to $627 in 1998; 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: 1998
In 1998, prices rose 1.6% and $100 from 1951 had the buying
power of $627; the year's average CPI of 163 is the level
behind every 1998 figure on this page.
The median household earned about $38,900 in 1998, gas averaged just $1.06 a gallon, its
cheapest of the decade, and a new home cost roughly $152,500. Inflation ran at 1.6% for the
year, the lowest of the 1990s, as a glut of crude oil, worsened by weak demand from Asia’s
slowdown, pushed prices below $11 a barrel by December and pulled pump prices down with them.
The calm at home came alongside real turmoil abroad: in August, Russia devalued the ruble and
defaulted on its domestic debt, rattling markets already unsettled by the Asian financial
crisis, and in September the hedge fund Long-Term Capital Management collapsed after its highly
leveraged bets went bad, prompting the Federal Reserve to organize a private-sector bailout by
more than a dozen banks to prevent a disorderly unwinding of its roughly $100 billion in
positions. The Fed also cut interest rates three times that fall, in September, October, and
November, an insurance policy against the global financial turmoil spreading to the U.S.
economy. Cheap oil and a well-timed set of rate cuts left 1998 as a year the U.S. economy
absorbed two foreign financial crises without much of a dent at home.
MLA: “Inflation from 1951 to 1998: $100 is worth $627 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1951-to-1998/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1951 to 1998. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1951-to-1998/