$100 in 1952 is worth $414 in 1986,
because prices increased 313.6% over that period, an average of
4.26% a year.
$100 in 1952 has
the same buying power as
$414
in 1986
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
313.6%
Average inflation rate
4.26% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$414
Price difference ($100 base)
$314
CPI in 1952
26.5
CPI in 1986
109.6
Inflation in 1952
1.92%
Inflation in 1986
1.86%
$100 in 1952 → 1986
$414
$100 in 1986 → 1952
$24.18
What happened to prices between 1952 and 1986
Between 1952 and 1986, the Consumer Price Index went from 26.5 to 109.6.
Cumulatively, prices increased 313.6%, which works out to an average of
4.26% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1952 bought what
$0.24 buys in 1986: the 1952 dollar
lost 75.8% of its purchasing power over
these 34 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 1986 at the same ratio, 4.14: $1,000 becomes
$4,136, and $10,000 becomes $41,358.
Amount in 1952
Value in 1986
$1.00
$4.14
$5.00
$20.68
$10.00
$41.36
$20.00
$82.72
$50.00
$207
$100
$414
$500
$2,068
$1,000
$4,136
$5,000
$20,679
$10,000
$41,358
$100,000
$413,585
$1,000,000
$4,135,849
Inflation by spending category, 1952–1986
Between 1952 and 1986, medical care rose the most, up 630.5%, while apparel rose the least, up 143.4%, against 313.6% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1952
spending costs in 1986, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1952 →
All items (CPI-U)
4.26%
$414
Medical care
6.02%
$731
Transportation
4.15%
$398
Food
4.00%
$380
Apparel
2.65%
$243
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 1986
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 1952–1986 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
1980–1986
4.87%
33.0%
$414
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1952
$100 from 1952 had already become $131 by
1968, on its way to $414 in 1986; 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 2 years; the calculator above covers any pair of years.
The destination year: 1986
In 1986, prices rose 1.9% and $100 from 1952 had the buying
power of $414; the year's average CPI of 109.6 is the level
behind every 1986 figure on this page.
1986 delivered the decade’s biggest one-year drop in inflation, and it came
almost entirely from a single source: oil. Saudi Arabia abandoned its policy
of restraining output to prop up prices, and world crude collapsed from
about $27 a barrel to under $10 by midyear. Gasoline, which had averaged
$1.12 a gallon in 1985, fell to 86 cents. With energy costs plunging,
headline CPI inflation for the year came in at just 1.9%, the lowest annual
rate since 1965 and a striking bookend to 1980’s 13.5% peak. The relief was
uneven: prices for most goods and services outside energy kept rising at a
moderate pace, so households that didn’t drive much or heat with oil felt
less of the difference. In October, Congress passed the Tax Reform Act of
1986, a bipartisan overhaul that cut the top individual income tax rate from
50% to 28% while closing many deductions and shelters, the broadest rewrite
of the federal tax code since World War II. Between cheap gas and falling
interest rates, 1986 read like proof that the inflationary 1970s were a
closed chapter, six years after the U.S. economy had felt anything but
calm.
MLA: “Inflation from 1952 to 1986: $100 is worth $414 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1952-to-1986/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1952 to 1986. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1952-to-1986/