$100 in 1952 is worth $102 in 1954,
because prices increased 1.5% over that period, an average of
0.75% a year.
$100 in 1952 has
the same buying power as
$102
in 1954
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
1.5%
Average inflation rate
0.75% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$102
Price difference ($100 base)
$1.51
CPI in 1952
26.5
CPI in 1954
26.9
Inflation in 1952
1.92%
Inflation in 1954
0.75%
$100 in 1952 → 1954
$102
$100 in 1954 → 1952
$98.51
What happened to prices between 1952 and 1954
Between 1952 and 1954, the Consumer Price Index went from 26.5 to 26.9.
Cumulatively, prices increased 1.5%, which works out to an average of
0.75% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1952 bought what
$0.99 buys in 1954: the 1952 dollar
lost 1.5% of its purchasing power over
these 2 years.
Consumer prices rose 1.9% in 1952, down sharply from 1951’s
7.9% as the price and wage controls imposed the year before held the cost
of living in check even with the Korean War still underway. Labor strife
tested those controls that spring: to head off a strike that could have
disrupted war production, President Truman ordered the government to
seize the steel industry that April, over the objections of steel
companies fighting the price the Office of Price Stabilization had set for
their product. The Supreme Court ruled the seizure unconstitutional in
Youngstown Sheet & Tube Co. v. Sawyer that June, a landmark limit on
presidential power, and steelworkers then struck for 53 days before a
settlement. Politics delivered the year’s biggest change that November:
Dwight Eisenhower defeated Adlai Stevenson, promising to “go to Korea” to
end the war and returning Republicans to the White House for the first
time since 1933. The Cold War’s technological edge sharpened that same
month, when the United States tested the first hydrogen bomb at Enewetak
Atoll on November 1, a device hundreds of times more powerful than the
atomic bombs used against Japan in 1945. Consumer prices finished 1952
167.7% above their 1913 level. First-class postage held at
3 cents, and the minimum wage stayed at 75 cents an hour.
Every 1952 amount converts to 1954 at the same ratio, 1.02: $1,000 becomes
$1,015, and $10,000 becomes $10,151.
Amount in 1952
Value in 1954
$1.00
$1.02
$5.00
$5.08
$10.00
$10.15
$20.00
$20.30
$50.00
$50.75
$100
$102
$500
$508
$1,000
$1,015
$5,000
$5,075
$10,000
$10,151
$100,000
$101,509
$1,000,000
$1,015,094
Inflation by spending category, 1952–1954
Between 1952 and 1954, medical care rose the most, up 6.6%, while food fell 1.7%, against 1.5% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1952
spending costs in 1954, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1952 →
All items (CPI-U)
0.75%
$102
Medical care
3.24%
$107
Transportation
0.78%
$102
Apparel
-0.46%
$99.08
Food
-0.87%
$98.26
Not shown because the BLS began these indexes after 1952: core (all items less food & energy) (1957–), energy (1957–), housing (1967–), recreation (1993–), education & communication (1993–).
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1952
$100 from 1952 had already become $101 by
1953, on its way to $102 in 1954; each row shows the CPI, that
year's inflation rate, and the running value.
Within the span, inflation peaked at 0.8% in 1953, and the smallest rise was 0.7% in 1954.
In 1954, prices rose 0.7% and $100 from 1952 had the buying
power of $102; the year's average CPI of 26.9 is the level
behind every 1954 figure on this page.
Consumer prices rose 0.7% in 1954, extending 1953’s 0.8%
slowdown even as the economy tipped into recession, an early example of
prices continuing to rise through a downturn rather than falling with it.
The National Bureau of Economic Research dates that recession from July
1953 to May 1954, as defense spending fell after the Korean War armistice
and the tighter monetary policy of the year before worked its way through
the economy. The Supreme Court reshaped a different part of American life
that spring: its unanimous May 17 ruling in Brown v. Board of Education
held that “separate but equal” public schools violated the Constitution,
overturning the legal basis for segregated education. Washington also
closed the book on a different fight that year. Following the televised
Army-McCarthy hearings that spring, the Senate voted 67 to 22 on December
2 to condemn Senator Joseph McCarthy’s conduct, ending his dominance of
American politics after four years of anti-communist investigations.
Consumer prices finished 1954 171.7% above their 1913
level, essentially flat with 1953 as the mild recession
held the cost of living in check. First-class postage held at 3 cents,
and the minimum wage stayed at 75 cents an hour.
MLA: “Inflation from 1952 to 1954: $100 is worth $102 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1952-to-1954/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1952 to 1954. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1952-to-1954/