$100 in 1952 is worth $429 in 1987,
because prices increased 328.7% over that period, an average of
4.25% a year.
$100 in 1952 has
the same buying power as
$429
in 1987
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
328.7%
Average inflation rate
4.25% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$429
Price difference ($100 base)
$329
CPI in 1952
26.5
CPI in 1987
113.6
Inflation in 1952
1.92%
Inflation in 1987
3.65%
$100 in 1952 → 1987
$429
$100 in 1987 → 1952
$23.33
What happened to prices between 1952 and 1987
Between 1952 and 1987, the Consumer Price Index went from 26.5 to 113.6.
Cumulatively, prices increased 328.7%, which works out to an average of
4.25% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1952 bought what
$0.23 buys in 1987: the 1952 dollar
lost 76.7% of its purchasing power over
these 35 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 1987 at the same ratio, 4.29: $1,000 becomes
$4,287, and $10,000 becomes $42,868.
Amount in 1952
Value in 1987
$1.00
$4.29
$5.00
$21.43
$10.00
$42.87
$20.00
$85.74
$50.00
$214
$100
$429
$500
$2,143
$1,000
$4,287
$5,000
$21,434
$10,000
$42,868
$100,000
$428,679
$1,000,000
$4,286,792
Inflation by spending category, 1952–1987
Between 1952 and 1987, medical care rose the most, up 679.0%, while apparel rose the least, up 154.3%, against 328.7% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1952
spending costs in 1987, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1952 →
All items (CPI-U)
4.25%
$429
Medical care
6.04%
$779
Transportation
4.11%
$410
Food
4.01%
$395
Apparel
2.70%
$254
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 1987
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 1952–1987 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
1980–1987
4.69%
37.9%
$429
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1952
$100 from 1952 had already become $146 by
1970, on its way to $429 in 1987; 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: 1987
In 1987, prices rose 3.6% and $100 from 1952 had the buying
power of $429; the year's average CPI of 113.6 is the level
behind every 1987 figure on this page.
1987 tested whether the disinflation of the 1980s could survive its first
real shock. Paul Volcker, who had run the Federal Reserve since 1979 and
driven inflation down from 13.5% to routine mid-single digits, handed the
chairmanship to Alan Greenspan in August. Inflation for the year came in at
3.6%, edging up as the expansion entered its fifth year and a weaker
dollar, following 1985’s Plaza Accord, pushed up the price of imported
goods. Then, on October 19, the stock market delivered Greenspan’s first
crisis: the Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 22.6% in a single session,
still the largest one-day percentage drop in its history, as computer-driven
“portfolio insurance” trading amplified a global sell-off that had started
days earlier. The Fed responded within 24 hours, publicly pledging to
supply whatever liquidity the banking system needed, and the panic did not
spread to the broader economy. Growth continued and unemployment kept
falling through the rest of the year. It was an early demonstration of what
became known as the “Greenspan put,” a Fed willing to move fast and loosen
policy to contain financial shocks even while still watching inflation,
that shaped central banking for the next two decades.
MLA: “Inflation from 1952 to 1987: $100 is worth $429 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1952-to-1987/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1952 to 1987. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1952-to-1987/