$100 in 1951 is worth $966 in 2018,
because prices increased 865.8% over that period, an average of
3.44% a year.
$100 in 1951 has
the same buying power as
$966
in 2018
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
865.8%
Average inflation rate
3.44% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$966
Price difference ($100 base)
$866
CPI in 1951
26
CPI in 2018
251.107
Inflation in 1951
7.88%
Inflation in 2018
2.44%
$100 in 1951 → 2018
$966
$100 in 2018 → 1951
$10.35
What happened to prices between 1951 and 2018
Between 1951 and 2018, the Consumer Price Index went from 26 to 251.107.
Cumulatively, prices increased 865.8%, which works out to an average of
3.44% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1951 bought what
$0.10 buys in 2018: the 1951 dollar
lost 89.6% of its purchasing power over
these 67 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 2018 at the same ratio, 9.66: $1,000 becomes
$9,658, and $10,000 becomes $96,580.
Amount in 1951
Value in 2018
$1.00
$9.66
$5.00
$48.29
$10.00
$96.58
$20.00
$193
$50.00
$483
$100
$966
$500
$4,829
$1,000
$9,658
$5,000
$48,290
$10,000
$96,580
$100,000
$965,796
$1,000,000
$9,657,962
Inflation by spending category, 1951–2018
Between 1951 and 2018, medical care rose the most, up 2948.5%, while apparel rose the least, up 186.2%, against 865.8% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1951
spending costs in 2018, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1951 →
All items (CPI-U)
3.44%
$966
Medical care
5.23%
$3,048
Food
3.33%
$899
Transportation
3.29%
$874
Apparel
1.58%
$286
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 2018
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 1951–2018 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
2010–2018
1.78%
15.2%
$966
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1951
$100 from 1951 had already become $422 by
1986, on its way to $966 in 2018; 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: 2018
In 2018, prices rose 2.4% and $100 from 1951 had the buying
power of $966; the year's average CPI of 251.107 is the level
behind every 2018 figure on this page.
2018 was the peak of the late-2010s expansion. Consumer prices rose 2.4%,
the fastest since 2011, with gasoline averaging $2.72 a gallon after a summer
high. Unemployment fell to 3.7% in September, the lowest since 1969, and median
household income reached $63,179. The median new home sold for about $331,800,
and a first-class stamp cost 50 cents. The federal minimum wage was still $7.25.
Trade policy became a price factor for the first time in decades. New tariffs
on steel, aluminum, and a growing list of Chinese goods raised costs for
manufacturers and some consumer products, and retaliation cut into exports of
soybeans and other farm goods.
The Federal Reserve, led from February by Jerome Powell, raised rates four
times to 2.25–2.50%. A stock-market drop of nearly 20% in the fourth quarter
led the Fed to signal a pause in early 2019. Oil fell from over $75 a barrel in
October to below $50 by December, which pulled headline inflation lower going
into the next year.
MLA: “Inflation from 1951 to 2018: $100 is worth $966 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1951-to-2018/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1951 to 2018. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1951-to-2018/