$100 in 1952 is worth $311 in 1980,
because prices increased 210.9% over that period, an average of
4.13% a year.
$100 in 1952 has
the same buying power as
$311
in 1980
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
210.9%
Average inflation rate
4.13% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$311
Price difference ($100 base)
$211
CPI in 1952
26.5
CPI in 1980
82.4
Inflation in 1952
1.92%
Inflation in 1980
13.50%
$100 in 1952 → 1980
$311
$100 in 1980 → 1952
$32.16
What happened to prices between 1952 and 1980
Between 1952 and 1980, the Consumer Price Index went from 26.5 to 82.4.
Cumulatively, prices increased 210.9%, which works out to an average of
4.13% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1952 bought what
$0.32 buys in 1980: the 1952 dollar
lost 67.8% of its purchasing power over
these 28 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 1980 at the same ratio, 3.11: $1,000 becomes
$3,109, and $10,000 becomes $31,094.
Amount in 1952
Value in 1980
$1.00
$3.11
$5.00
$15.55
$10.00
$31.09
$20.00
$62.19
$50.00
$155
$100
$311
$500
$1,555
$1,000
$3,109
$5,000
$15,547
$10,000
$31,094
$100,000
$310,943
$1,000,000
$3,109,434
Inflation by spending category, 1952–1980
Between 1952 and 1980, medical care rose the most, up 348.5%, while apparel rose the least, up 109.0%, against 210.9% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1952
spending costs in 1980, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1952 →
All items (CPI-U)
4.13%
$311
Medical care
5.51%
$449
Transportation
4.28%
$323
Food
4.03%
$302
Apparel
2.67%
$209
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 1980
Prices climbed fastest in the 1970s, averaging 7.82% a year, and slowest in the 1950s (1.39% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1952–1980 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
1970–1980
7.82%
112.4%
$311
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1952
$100 from 1952 had already become $122 by
1966, on its way to $311 in 1980; 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.
In 1980, prices rose 13.5% and $100 from 1952 had the buying
power of $311; the year's average CPI of 82.4 is the level
behind every 1980 figure on this page.
1980 sat at the very peak of the Great Inflation. Prices rose 13.5% in that
single year, mortgage rates were climbing toward 16%, and the Federal Reserve
under Paul Volcker was administering the painful interest-rate medicine that
would finally break the inflationary spiral, at the cost of the deep 1981–82
recession. No single year looms larger in how Americans think about inflation.
MLA: “Inflation from 1952 to 1980: $100 is worth $311 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1952-to-1980/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1952 to 1980. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1952-to-1980/