$100 in 1951 is worth $912 in 2015,
because prices increased 811.6% over that period, an average of
3.51% a year.
$100 in 1951 has
the same buying power as
$912
in 2015
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
811.6%
Average inflation rate
3.51% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$912
Price difference ($100 base)
$812
CPI in 1951
26
CPI in 2015
237.017
Inflation in 1951
7.88%
Inflation in 2015
0.12%
$100 in 1951 → 2015
$912
$100 in 2015 → 1951
$10.97
What happened to prices between 1951 and 2015
Between 1951 and 2015, the Consumer Price Index went from 26 to 237.017.
Cumulatively, prices increased 811.6%, which works out to an average of
3.51% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1951 bought what
$0.11 buys in 2015: the 1951 dollar
lost 89.0% of its purchasing power over
these 64 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 2015 at the same ratio, 9.12: $1,000 becomes
$9,116, and $10,000 becomes $91,160.
Amount in 1951
Value in 2015
$1.00
$9.12
$5.00
$45.58
$10.00
$91.16
$20.00
$182
$50.00
$456
$100
$912
$500
$4,558
$1,000
$9,116
$5,000
$45,580
$10,000
$91,160
$100,000
$911,604
$1,000,000
$9,116,038
Inflation by spending category, 1951–2015
Between 1951 and 2015, medical care rose the most, up 2709.8%, while apparel rose the least, up 186.8%, against 811.6% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1951
spending costs in 2015, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1951 →
All items (CPI-U)
3.51%
$912
Medical care
5.35%
$2,810
Food
3.45%
$877
Transportation
3.35%
$826
Apparel
1.66%
$287
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 2015
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 1951–2015 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
2010–2015
1.68%
8.7%
$912
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1951
$100 from 1951 had already become $350 by
1981, on its way to $912 in 2015; 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: 2015
In 2015, prices rose 0.1% and $100 from 1951 had the buying
power of $912; the year's average CPI of 237.017 is the level
behind every 2015 figure on this page.
2015 was almost a year with no inflation at all. Consumer prices rose 0.1%,
the smallest increase since the 2009 decline, because energy prices kept
falling. Gasoline averaged $2.45 a gallon, down from $3.37 in 2014, and a
strong dollar made imported goods cheaper. The picture was different outside
food and energy: core prices rose about 1.8% as rents and medical costs
climbed.
Incomes finally showed real progress. Median household income reached $56,516,
a large jump from $53,657, and the median new home sold for about $296,400. The
federal minimum wage stayed at $7.25, and a first-class stamp stayed at 49
cents.
The Federal Reserve chose December to end its zero-rate policy, raising the
target range to 0.25–0.50% for the first time since 2006. It moved even
though headline inflation was far under 2%, arguing that the drag from
energy was temporary. Earlier, a currency shift in China in August had shaken
global markets and pushed oil below $40 a barrel. Prices in 2015 ended
the year barely above their 2014 level.
MLA: “Inflation from 1951 to 2015: $100 is worth $912 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1951-to-2015/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1951 to 2015. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1951-to-2015/