$100 in 1951 is worth $751 in 2005,
because prices increased 651.2% over that period, an average of
3.80% a year.
$100 in 1951 has
the same buying power as
$751
in 2005
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
651.2%
Average inflation rate
3.80% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$751
Price difference ($100 base)
$651
CPI in 1951
26
CPI in 2005
195.3
Inflation in 1951
7.88%
Inflation in 2005
3.39%
$100 in 1951 → 2005
$751
$100 in 2005 → 1951
$13.31
What happened to prices between 1951 and 2005
Between 1951 and 2005, the Consumer Price Index went from 26 to 195.3.
Cumulatively, prices increased 651.2%, which works out to an average of
3.80% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1951 bought what
$0.13 buys in 2005: the 1951 dollar
lost 86.7% of its purchasing power over
these 54 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 2005 at the same ratio, 7.51: $1,000 becomes
$7,512, and $10,000 becomes $75,115.
Amount in 1951
Value in 2005
$1.00
$7.51
$5.00
$37.56
$10.00
$75.12
$20.00
$150
$50.00
$376
$100
$751
$500
$3,756
$1,000
$7,512
$5,000
$37,558
$10,000
$75,115
$100,000
$751,154
$1,000,000
$7,511,538
Inflation by spending category, 1951–2005
Between 1951 and 2005, medical care rose the most, up 1932.7%, while apparel rose the least, up 172.2%, against 651.2% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1951
spending costs in 2005, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1951 →
All items (CPI-U)
3.80%
$751
Medical care
5.74%
$2,033
Transportation
3.73%
$722
Food
3.60%
$676
Apparel
1.87%
$272
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 2005
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 1951–2005 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
2000–2005
2.55%
13.4%
$751
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1951
$100 from 1951 had already become $233 by
1977, on its way to $751 in 2005; 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: 2005
In 2005, prices rose 3.4% and $100 from 1951 had the buying
power of $751; the year's average CPI of 195.3 is the level
behind every 2005 figure on this page.
Inflation rose to 3.4% in 2005, up from 2.7% in 2004, as gasoline averaged $2.30 a gallon,
compared with $1.88 the year before. Hurricane Katrina made landfall on August 29, and with
Hurricane Rita weeks later it disrupted Gulf Coast refining, pushing the national average
price past $3 in early September. The Federal Reserve raised its policy rate at every meeting,
from 2.25% to 4.25%, to keep energy costs from feeding into other prices. The median household
earned about $46,300, up 4.5% from 2004, but the median new home price rose a further 9%, to
$240,900. In April, Congress passed a bankruptcy law that made it harder to clear debts. A
first-class stamp stayed at 37 cents until January 2006, and the federal minimum wage stayed
at $5.15.
MLA: “Inflation from 1951 to 2005: $100 is worth $751 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1951-to-2005/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1951 to 2005. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1951-to-2005/