$100 in 1951 is worth $727 in 2004,
because prices increased 626.5% over that period, an average of
3.81% a year.
$100 in 1951 has
the same buying power as
$727
in 2004
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
626.5%
Average inflation rate
3.81% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$727
Price difference ($100 base)
$627
CPI in 1951
26
CPI in 2004
188.9
Inflation in 1951
7.88%
Inflation in 2004
2.66%
$100 in 1951 → 2004
$727
$100 in 2004 → 1951
$13.76
What happened to prices between 1951 and 2004
Between 1951 and 2004, the Consumer Price Index went from 26 to 188.9.
Cumulatively, prices increased 626.5%, which works out to an average of
3.81% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1951 bought what
$0.14 buys in 2004: the 1951 dollar
lost 86.2% of its purchasing power over
these 53 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 2004 at the same ratio, 7.27: $1,000 becomes
$7,265, and $10,000 becomes $72,654.
Amount in 1951
Value in 2004
$1.00
$7.27
$5.00
$36.33
$10.00
$72.65
$20.00
$145
$50.00
$363
$100
$727
$500
$3,633
$1,000
$7,265
$5,000
$36,327
$10,000
$72,654
$100,000
$726,538
$1,000,000
$7,265,385
Inflation by spending category, 1951–2004
Between 1951 and 2004, medical care rose the most, up 1850.3%, while apparel rose the least, up 174.3%, against 626.5% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1951
spending costs in 2004, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1951 →
All items (CPI-U)
3.81%
$727
Medical care
5.76%
$1,950
Transportation
3.67%
$677
Food
3.63%
$660
Apparel
1.92%
$274
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 2004
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 1951–2004 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
2000–2004
2.34%
9.7%
$727
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1951
$100 from 1951 had already become $233 by
1977, on its way to $727 in 2004; 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: 2004
In 2004, prices rose 2.7% and $100 from 1951 had the buying
power of $727; the year's average CPI of 188.9 is the level
behind every 2004 figure on this page.
Consumer prices rose 2.7% in 2004, with a 29-cent jump in the price of gasoline, to $1.88 a
gallon, doing much of the work. Crude oil passed $50 a barrel in October on rising demand
from China and India. The Federal Reserve raised rates for the first time in four years on
June 30, to 1.25%, and it kept going: 17 consecutive quarter-point increases took the rate to
5.25% by June 2006. Housing was already running ahead of incomes. The median household earned
about $44,300, up 2.3% from 2003, while the median new home sold for $221,000, up about 13%. A
first-class stamp stayed at 37 cents and the federal minimum wage at $5.15, unchanged since
1997.
MLA: “Inflation from 1951 to 2004: $100 is worth $727 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1951-to-2004/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1951 to 2004. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1951-to-2004/