$100 in 1952 is worth $215 in 1976,
because prices increased 114.7% over that period, an average of
3.24% a year.
$100 in 1952 has
the same buying power as
$215
in 1976
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
114.7%
Average inflation rate
3.24% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$215
Price difference ($100 base)
$115
CPI in 1952
26.5
CPI in 1976
56.9
Inflation in 1952
1.92%
Inflation in 1976
5.76%
$100 in 1952 → 1976
$215
$100 in 1976 → 1952
$46.57
What happened to prices between 1952 and 1976
Between 1952 and 1976, the Consumer Price Index went from 26.5 to 56.9.
Cumulatively, prices increased 114.7%, which works out to an average of
3.24% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1952 bought what
$0.47 buys in 1976: the 1952 dollar
lost 53.4% of its purchasing power over
these 24 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 1976 at the same ratio, 2.15: $1,000 becomes
$2,147, and $10,000 becomes $21,472.
Amount in 1952
Value in 1976
$1.00
$2.15
$5.00
$10.74
$10.00
$21.47
$20.00
$42.94
$50.00
$107
$100
$215
$500
$1,074
$1,000
$2,147
$5,000
$10,736
$10,000
$21,472
$100,000
$214,717
$1,000,000
$2,147,170
Inflation by spending category, 1952–1976
Between 1952 and 1976, medical care rose the most, up 211.4%, while apparel rose the least, up 72.9%, against 114.7% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1952
spending costs in 1976, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1952 →
All items (CPI-U)
3.24%
$215
Medical care
4.85%
$311
Food
3.23%
$215
Transportation
3.23%
$214
Apparel
2.31%
$173
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–).
Decade by decade: 1952 to 1976
Prices climbed fastest in the 1970s, averaging 6.59% a year, and slowest in the 1950s (1.39% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1952–1976 change:
Years
Avg. yearly inflation
Price change
$100 from 1952, at end
1952–1960
1.39%
11.7%
$112
1960–1970
2.74%
31.1%
$146
1970–1976
6.59%
46.6%
$215
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1952
$100 from 1952 had already become $117 by
1964, on its way to $215 in 1976; each row shows the CPI, that
year's inflation rate, and the running value.
Within the span, inflation peaked at 11.0% in 1974, and prices fell 0.4% in 1955, the deepest deflation of the period.
In 1976, prices rose 5.8% and $100 from 1952 had the buying
power of $215; the year's average CPI of 56.9 is the level
behind every 1976 figure on this page.
Consumer prices rose 5.8% in 1976, the calmest pace since 1972,
as the economy pulled out of the 1973-75 recession and price growth settled
to roughly half its 1974 peak. The recovery gave Americans
room to celebrate: tall ships filled New York Harbor and fireworks lit cities
nationwide on July 4 for the country’s bicentennial, a rare moment of shared
celebration after Vietnam and Watergate. Politically, Jimmy Carter, a former
Georgia governor running as a Washington outsider, defeated incumbent Gerald
Ford that November, campaigning on restoring trust in government and bringing
down inflation and unemployment together. In a California garage, Steve
Jobs, Steve Wozniak, and Ronald Wayne founded Apple Computer that April to
sell the Apple I, a bare circuit board aimed at electronics hobbyists, a
business that looked far from consequential at the time. First-class
postage, which had risen to 13 cents that past December 31, held there
through the year, the longest stretch without a rate change since the Postal
Service’s creation. A median household earned $12,686 in 1976, a new home
sold for a median $44,200, and gas averaged 59 cents a gallon. Consumer
prices stood 474.7% above their 1913 level, a calm interlude
before inflation turned back up.
MLA: “Inflation from 1952 to 1976: $100 is worth $215 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1952-to-1976/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1952 to 1976. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1952-to-1976/