$100 in 1952 is worth $446 in 1988,
because prices increased 346.4% over that period, an average of
4.24% a year.
$100 in 1952 has
the same buying power as
$446
in 1988
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
346.4%
Average inflation rate
4.24% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$446
Price difference ($100 base)
$346
CPI in 1952
26.5
CPI in 1988
118.3
Inflation in 1952
1.92%
Inflation in 1988
4.14%
$100 in 1952 → 1988
$446
$100 in 1988 → 1952
$22.40
What happened to prices between 1952 and 1988
Between 1952 and 1988, the Consumer Price Index went from 26.5 to 118.3.
Cumulatively, prices increased 346.4%, which works out to an average of
4.24% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1952 bought what
$0.22 buys in 1988: the 1952 dollar
lost 77.6% of its purchasing power over
these 36 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 1988 at the same ratio, 4.46: $1,000 becomes
$4,464, and $10,000 becomes $44,642.
Amount in 1952
Value in 1988
$1.00
$4.46
$5.00
$22.32
$10.00
$44.64
$20.00
$89.28
$50.00
$223
$100
$446
$500
$2,232
$1,000
$4,464
$5,000
$22,321
$10,000
$44,642
$100,000
$446,415
$1,000,000
$4,464,151
Inflation by spending category, 1952–1988
Between 1952 and 1988, medical care rose the most, up 729.9%, while apparel rose the least, up 165.3%, against 346.4% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1952
spending costs in 1988, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1952 →
All items (CPI-U)
4.24%
$446
Medical care
6.05%
$830
Transportation
4.09%
$423
Food
4.01%
$412
Apparel
2.75%
$265
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 1988
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 1952–1988 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
1980–1988
4.62%
43.6%
$446
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1952
$100 from 1952 had already become $146 by
1970, on its way to $446 in 1988; 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: 1988
In 1988, prices rose 4.1% and $100 from 1952 had the buying
power of $446; the year's average CPI of 118.3 is the level
behind every 1988 figure on this page.
By 1988, the economic expansion that began in the ashes of the 1981-82
recession was in its sixth year, and the Federal Reserve was watching for
signs it had run too long. Inflation rose to 4.1%, up from 3.6% the year
before, while unemployment fell to its lowest level since 1974. Alan
Greenspan’s Fed responded by raising the federal funds rate through the
year, from about 6.5% to 8.5%, trying to cool demand before prices
accelerated the way they had in the 1970s. Households still felt the
difference between this expansion and the last one: gas held near 90 cents
a gallon, almost exactly its 1987 price, and median household income rose
to roughly $27,200. The one price that moved was postage, which rose from
22 to 25 cents in April, the fourth increase of the decade but a far
gentler pace than the string of increases in the late 1970s and early
1980s. In November, Vice President George H.W. Bush won the presidency on
the strength of the expansion, promising in his nomination speech to hold
the line on taxes. Both the boom and that pledge would run into trouble
within two years, as the Fed’s rate increases helped tip the economy toward
the 1990-91 recession.
MLA: “Inflation from 1952 to 1988: $100 is worth $446 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1952-to-1988/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1952 to 1988. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1952-to-1988/