$100 in 1952 is worth $229 in 1977,
because prices increased 128.7% over that period, an average of
3.36% a year.
$100 in 1952 has
the same buying power as
$229
in 1977
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
128.7%
Average inflation rate
3.36% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$229
Price difference ($100 base)
$129
CPI in 1952
26.5
CPI in 1977
60.6
Inflation in 1952
1.92%
Inflation in 1977
6.50%
$100 in 1952 → 1977
$229
$100 in 1977 → 1952
$43.73
What happened to prices between 1952 and 1977
Between 1952 and 1977, the Consumer Price Index went from 26.5 to 60.6.
Cumulatively, prices increased 128.7%, which works out to an average of
3.36% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1952 bought what
$0.44 buys in 1977: the 1952 dollar
lost 56.3% of its purchasing power over
these 25 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 1977 at the same ratio, 2.29: $1,000 becomes
$2,287, and $10,000 becomes $22,868.
Amount in 1952
Value in 1977
$1.00
$2.29
$5.00
$11.43
$10.00
$22.87
$20.00
$45.74
$50.00
$114
$100
$229
$500
$1,143
$1,000
$2,287
$5,000
$11,434
$10,000
$22,868
$100,000
$228,679
$1,000,000
$2,286,792
Inflation by spending category, 1952–1977
Between 1952 and 1977, medical care rose the most, up 241.3%, while apparel rose the least, up 80.7%, against 128.7% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1952
spending costs in 1977, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1952 →
All items (CPI-U)
3.36%
$229
Medical care
5.03%
$341
Transportation
3.38%
$230
Food
3.36%
$228
Apparel
2.39%
$181
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 1977
Prices climbed fastest in the 1970s, averaging 6.58% a year, and slowest in the 1950s (1.39% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1952–1977 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
1970–1977
6.58%
56.2%
$229
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1952
$100 from 1952 had already become $117 by
1964, on its way to $229 in 1977; 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 1977, prices rose 6.5% and $100 from 1952 had the buying
power of $229; the year's average CPI of 60.6 is the level
behind every 1977 figure on this page.
Consumer prices rose 6.5% in 1977, ticking back up from 1976’s
5.8% as the economic recovery strengthened, wages climbed, and energy costs
pushed higher again. The year opened with a warning about that energy
dependence: record cold across the Midwest and Northeast in January and
February strained natural gas supplies so badly that schools and factories in
several states shut down for days to conserve fuel. Jimmy Carter, inaugurated
that January, made energy policy a centerpiece of his presidency, and
Congress created the cabinet-level Department of Energy that August to
consolidate programs built up piecemeal since the 1973 oil embargo. Culture
offered some relief from the anxiety: released that May, Star Wars became the
highest-grossing film in history to that point, drawing lines around theater
blocks for months. The year also closed an era in a different way. Elvis
Presley was found dead at his Graceland home on August 16 at age 42, drawing
tens of thousands of mourners to Memphis. A median household earned $13,572
in 1977, a new home sold for a median $48,800, and gas averaged 62 cents a
gallon. Consumer prices stood 512.1% above their 1913 level,
with the energy anxieties of the year setting up the harder shocks of 1978
and 1979.
MLA: “Inflation from 1952 to 1977: $100 is worth $229 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1952-to-1977/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1952 to 1977. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1952-to-1977/