$100 in 1951 is worth $883 in 2012,
because prices increased 783.1% over that period, an average of
3.64% a year.
$100 in 1951 has
the same buying power as
$883
in 2012
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
783.1%
Average inflation rate
3.64% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$883
Price difference ($100 base)
$783
CPI in 1951
26
CPI in 2012
229.594
Inflation in 1951
7.88%
Inflation in 2012
2.07%
$100 in 1951 → 2012
$883
$100 in 2012 → 1951
$11.32
What happened to prices between 1951 and 2012
Between 1951 and 2012, the Consumer Price Index went from 26 to 229.594.
Cumulatively, prices increased 783.1%, which works out to an average of
3.64% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1951 bought what
$0.11 buys in 2012: the 1951 dollar
lost 88.7% of its purchasing power over
these 61 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 2012 at the same ratio, 8.83: $1,000 becomes
$8,831, and $10,000 becomes $88,305.
Amount in 1951
Value in 2012
$1.00
$8.83
$5.00
$44.15
$10.00
$88.31
$20.00
$177
$50.00
$442
$100
$883
$500
$4,415
$1,000
$8,831
$5,000
$44,153
$10,000
$88,305
$100,000
$883,054
$1,000,000
$8,830,538
Inflation by spending category, 1951–2012
Between 1951 and 2012, medical care rose the most, up 2509.6%, while apparel rose the least, up 187.6%, against 783.1% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1951
spending costs in 2012, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1951 →
All items (CPI-U)
3.64%
$883
Medical care
5.49%
$2,610
Transportation
3.67%
$902
Food
3.53%
$829
Apparel
1.75%
$288
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 2012
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 1951–2012 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
2010–2012
2.61%
5.3%
$883
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1951
$100 from 1951 had already become $350 by
1981, on its way to $883 in 2012; 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 5 years; the calculator above covers any pair of years.
The destination year: 2012
In 2012, prices rose 2.1% and $100 from 1951 had the buying
power of $883; the year's average CPI of 229.594 is the level
behind every 2012 figure on this page.
2012 put a number on what the Federal Reserve was aiming for. In January the
Fed announced a 2% inflation target, and consumer prices rose 2.1% for the
year, almost exactly on it. Gasoline averaged $3.62 a gallon, another annual
high, but the pace of increase cooled from 2011’s 3.2% as food and core prices
grew more slowly.
The bigger story was housing and jobs. Home prices began to recover, and the
median new home sold for about $245,200, up from $227,200 the year before.
Median household income was $51,017. The federal minimum wage held at $7.25,
and a first-class stamp rose to 45 cents.
In September the Fed started a third round of asset purchases, this one with
no fixed end date, aimed at lowering unemployment. Overseas, the European
Central Bank’s July pledge to do “whatever it takes” to save the euro calmed
bond markets. A summer drought across the Midwest drove corn and soybean
prices to records, a shock that reached grocery shelves only partly, because
most of what shoppers pay for food covers processing and transport rather than
raw crops.
MLA: “Inflation from 1951 to 2012: $100 is worth $883 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1951-to-2012/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1951 to 2012. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1951-to-2012/