$100 in 1951 is worth $708 in 2003,
because prices increased 607.7% over that period, an average of
3.83% a year.
$100 in 1951 has
the same buying power as
$708
in 2003
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
607.7%
Average inflation rate
3.83% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$708
Price difference ($100 base)
$608
CPI in 1951
26
CPI in 2003
184
Inflation in 1951
7.88%
Inflation in 2003
2.28%
$100 in 1951 → 2003
$708
$100 in 2003 → 1951
$14.13
What happened to prices between 1951 and 2003
Between 1951 and 2003, the Consumer Price Index went from 26 to 184.
Cumulatively, prices increased 607.7%, which works out to an average of
3.83% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1951 bought what
$0.14 buys in 2003: the 1951 dollar
lost 85.9% of its purchasing power over
these 52 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 2003 at the same ratio, 7.08: $1,000 becomes
$7,077, and $10,000 becomes $70,769.
Amount in 1951
Value in 2003
$1.00
$7.08
$5.00
$35.38
$10.00
$70.77
$20.00
$142
$50.00
$354
$100
$708
$500
$3,538
$1,000
$7,077
$5,000
$35,385
$10,000
$70,769
$100,000
$707,692
$1,000,000
$7,076,923
Inflation by spending category, 1951–2003
Between 1951 and 2003, medical care rose the most, up 1768.6%, while apparel rose the least, up 175.4%, against 607.7% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1951
spending costs in 2003, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1951 →
All items (CPI-U)
3.83%
$708
Medical care
5.79%
$1,869
Transportation
3.68%
$654
Food
3.63%
$638
Apparel
1.97%
$275
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 2003
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 1951–2003 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
1990–2000
2.80%
31.8%
$662
2000–2003
2.23%
6.9%
$708
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1951
$100 from 1951 had already become $233 by
1977, on its way to $708 in 2003; 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: 2003
In 2003, prices rose 2.3% and $100 from 1951 had the buying
power of $708; the year's average CPI of 184 is the level
behind every 2003 figure on this page.
Inflation was 2.3% in 2003, up from 1.6% in 2002, as gasoline climbed from $1.36 to $1.59 a
gallon around the March invasion of Iraq. Even so, the Federal Reserve spent the year worried
about prices being too low: on June 25 it cut its policy rate to 1.0%, the lowest since 1958,
and said the risk of deflation, though small, deserved a response. The median household earned
about $43,300 and a new home cost roughly $195,000. Congress passed a second round of tax cuts
in May, and the economy grew faster in the second half of the year than at any point since
1999. Hiring lagged the recovery, and unemployment peaked at 6.3% in June. A first-class stamp
stayed at 37 cents and the federal minimum wage at $5.15.
MLA: “Inflation from 1951 to 2003: $100 is worth $708 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1951-to-2003/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1951 to 2003. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1951-to-2003/