$100 in 1951 is worth $983 in 2019,
because prices increased 883.3% over that period, an average of
3.42% a year.
$100 in 1951 has
the same buying power as
$983
in 2019
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
883.3%
Average inflation rate
3.42% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$983
Price difference ($100 base)
$883
CPI in 1951
26
CPI in 2019
255.657
Inflation in 1951
7.88%
Inflation in 2019
1.81%
$100 in 1951 → 2019
$983
$100 in 2019 → 1951
$10.17
What happened to prices between 1951 and 2019
Between 1951 and 2019, the Consumer Price Index went from 26 to 255.657.
Cumulatively, prices increased 883.3%, which works out to an average of
3.42% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1951 bought what
$0.10 buys in 2019: the 1951 dollar
lost 89.8% of its purchasing power over
these 68 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 2019 at the same ratio, 9.83: $1,000 becomes
$9,833, and $10,000 becomes $98,330.
Amount in 1951
Value in 2019
$1.00
$9.83
$5.00
$49.16
$10.00
$98.33
$20.00
$197
$50.00
$492
$100
$983
$500
$4,916
$1,000
$9,833
$5,000
$49,165
$10,000
$98,330
$100,000
$983,296
$1,000,000
$9,832,962
Inflation by spending category, 1951–2019
Between 1951 and 2019, medical care rose the most, up 3034.7%, while apparel rose the least, up 182.6%, against 883.3% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1951
spending costs in 2019, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1951 →
All items (CPI-U)
3.42%
$983
Medical care
5.20%
$3,135
Food
3.31%
$916
Transportation
3.24%
$872
Apparel
1.54%
$283
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 2019
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 1951–2019 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
2010–2019
1.78%
17.2%
$983
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1951
$100 from 1951 had already become $422 by
1986, on its way to $983 in 2019; 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: 2019
In 2019, prices rose 1.8% and $100 from 1951 had the buying
power of $983; the year's average CPI of 255.657 is the level
behind every 2019 figure on this page.
2019 was the last ordinary year before COVID-19. Consumer prices rose 1.8%,
slightly under the Federal Reserve’s 2% target, with gasoline averaging
$2.60 a gallon. Median household income jumped to $68,703, the highest on
record up to that point, and the median new home sold for about $328,000. A
first-class stamp rose to 55 cents.
The Fed reversed course. After four increases in 2018, it cut rates three
times, to 1.50–1.75%, citing slower global growth, trade tensions, and low
inflation. In July the expansion that began in June 2009 became the longest in
U.S. records, and in August the yield curve briefly inverted, a signal
investors read as a recession warning.
For workers at the bottom of the pay scale, 2019 marked a milestone of a
different kind. The federal minimum wage stayed at $7.25 and reached its tenth
year without an increase, the longest gap since the wage was first set. Because
prices had climbed about 19% since it was last raised in 2009, its buying power
was lower than at any point in that span.
MLA: “Inflation from 1951 to 2019: $100 is worth $983 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1951-to-2019/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1951 to 2019. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1951-to-2019/