$100 in 1951 is worth $911 in 2014,
because prices increased 810.5% over that period, an average of
3.57% a year.
$100 in 1951 has
the same buying power as
$911
in 2014
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
810.5%
Average inflation rate
3.57% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$911
Price difference ($100 base)
$811
CPI in 1951
26
CPI in 2014
236.736
Inflation in 1951
7.88%
Inflation in 2014
1.62%
$100 in 1951 → 2014
$911
$100 in 2014 → 1951
$10.98
What happened to prices between 1951 and 2014
Between 1951 and 2014, the Consumer Price Index went from 26 to 236.736.
Cumulatively, prices increased 810.5%, which works out to an average of
3.57% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1951 bought what
$0.11 buys in 2014: the 1951 dollar
lost 89.0% of its purchasing power over
these 63 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 2014 at the same ratio, 9.11: $1,000 becomes
$9,105, and $10,000 becomes $91,052.
Amount in 1951
Value in 2014
$1.00
$9.11
$5.00
$45.53
$10.00
$91.05
$20.00
$182
$50.00
$455
$100
$911
$500
$4,553
$1,000
$9,105
$5,000
$45,526
$10,000
$91,052
$100,000
$910,523
$1,000,000
$9,105,231
Inflation by spending category, 1951–2014
Between 1951 and 2014, medical care rose the most, up 2637.7%, while apparel rose the least, up 190.5%, against 810.5% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1951
spending costs in 2014, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1951 →
All items (CPI-U)
3.57%
$911
Medical care
5.39%
$2,738
Transportation
3.54%
$896
Food
3.48%
$861
Apparel
1.71%
$290
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 2014
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 1951–2014 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
2010–2014
2.08%
8.6%
$911
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1951
$100 from 1951 had already become $350 by
1981, on its way to $911 in 2014; 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: 2014
In 2014, prices rose 1.6% and $100 from 1951 had the buying
power of $911; the year's average CPI of 236.736 is the level
behind every 2014 figure on this page.
2014 ended with the sharpest oil price drop in years. Consumer prices rose
1.6% for the year, close to 2013’s pace, but the annual figure hid a shift at
the pump: crude oil fell from above $100 a barrel in June to below $60 in
December, and gasoline finished the year near $2.25 a gallon after averaging
$3.37 across 2014. The drop reflected record U.S. shale output, softer
global demand, and OPEC’s decision in November to keep producing.
For households, cheaper fuel arrived just as the labor market strengthened.
Median household income was $53,657, essentially flat on the prior year, and
the median new home sold for about $288,500. The federal minimum wage stayed
at $7.25 for a fifth year, and a first-class stamp rose to 49 cents.
The Federal Reserve ended its bond purchases in October but left its policy
rate at zero. A stronger dollar helped hold down import prices. Because
energy weighs heavily in the CPI, the late-year slide carried into 2015, which
posted the smallest annual increase of the decade.
MLA: “Inflation from 1951 to 2014: $100 is worth $911 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1951-to-2014/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1951 to 2014. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1951-to-2014/