$100 in 1951 is worth $839 in 2010,
because prices increased 738.7% over that period, an average of
3.67% a year.
$100 in 1951 has
the same buying power as
$839
in 2010
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
738.7%
Average inflation rate
3.67% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$839
Price difference ($100 base)
$739
CPI in 1951
26
CPI in 2010
218.056
Inflation in 1951
7.88%
Inflation in 2010
1.64%
$100 in 1951 → 2010
$839
$100 in 2010 → 1951
$11.92
What happened to prices between 1951 and 2010
Between 1951 and 2010, the Consumer Price Index went from 26 to 218.056.
Cumulatively, prices increased 738.7%, which works out to an average of
3.67% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1951 bought what
$0.12 buys in 2010: the 1951 dollar
lost 88.1% of its purchasing power over
these 59 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 2010 at the same ratio, 8.39: $1,000 becomes
$8,387, and $10,000 becomes $83,868.
Amount in 1951
Value in 2010
$1.00
$8.39
$5.00
$41.93
$10.00
$83.87
$20.00
$168
$50.00
$419
$100
$839
$500
$4,193
$1,000
$8,387
$5,000
$41,934
$10,000
$83,868
$100,000
$838,677
$1,000,000
$8,386,769
Inflation by spending category, 1951–2010
Between 1951 and 2010, medical care rose the most, up 2343.0%, while apparel rose the least, up 172.2%, against 738.7% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1951
spending costs in 2010, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1951 →
All items (CPI-U)
3.67%
$839
Medical care
5.57%
$2,443
Transportation
3.59%
$802
Food
3.54%
$779
Apparel
1.71%
$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 2010
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 1951–2010 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
2000–2010
2.39%
26.6%
$839
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1951
$100 from 1951 had already become $350 by
1981, on its way to $839 in 2010; 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: 2010
In 2010, prices rose 1.6% and $100 from 1951 had the buying
power of $839; the year's average CPI of 218.056 is the level
behind every 2010 figure on this page.
2010 was a year of recovery without much price pressure. The CPI rose 1.6%, a
return to growth after 2009’s deflation, with gasoline averaging $2.78 a
gallon as energy prices climbed back from their recession lows. Housing costs
barely moved: millions of foreclosed and vacant homes kept rents soft, and the
median new home sold for about $221,800. The federal minimum wage stayed at
$7.25, the level set in July 2009, and a first-class stamp cost 44 cents.
The Federal Reserve was more worried about too little inflation than too
much. Its policy rate sat at 0–0.25%, and in November it announced a further
$600 billion of Treasury purchases to hold down long-term borrowing costs.
Congress passed the Dodd-Frank Act in July to tighten financial regulation,
while a 110 billion euro rescue of Greece in May showed that the crisis had
moved from American mortgages to European government debt. For anyone
comparing dollars across the decade, 2010 is a useful baseline: prices were
still close to their 2008 levels, and the years ahead brought a slow, steady
climb.
MLA: “Inflation from 1951 to 2010: $100 is worth $839 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1951-to-2010/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1951 to 2010. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1951-to-2010/