$100 in 1952 is worth $514 in 1991,
because prices increased 414.0% over that period, an average of
4.29% a year.
$100 in 1952 has
the same buying power as
$514
in 1991
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
414.0%
Average inflation rate
4.29% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$514
Price difference ($100 base)
$414
CPI in 1952
26.5
CPI in 1991
136.2
Inflation in 1952
1.92%
Inflation in 1991
4.21%
$100 in 1952 → 1991
$514
$100 in 1991 → 1952
$19.46
What happened to prices between 1952 and 1991
Between 1952 and 1991, the Consumer Price Index went from 26.5 to 136.2.
Cumulatively, prices increased 414.0%, which works out to an average of
4.29% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1952 bought what
$0.19 buys in 1991: the 1952 dollar
lost 80.5% of its purchasing power over
these 39 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 1991 at the same ratio, 5.14: $1,000 becomes
$5,140, and $10,000 becomes $51,396.
Amount in 1952
Value in 1991
$1.00
$5.14
$5.00
$25.70
$10.00
$51.40
$20.00
$103
$50.00
$257
$100
$514
$500
$2,570
$1,000
$5,140
$5,000
$25,698
$10,000
$51,396
$100,000
$513,962
$1,000,000
$5,139,623
Inflation by spending category, 1952–1991
Between 1952 and 1991, medical care rose the most, up 959.9%, while apparel rose the least, up 195.9%, against 414.0% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1952
spending costs in 1991, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1952 →
All items (CPI-U)
4.29%
$514
Medical care
6.24%
$1,060
Transportation
4.11%
$482
Food
4.08%
$475
Apparel
2.82%
$296
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 1991
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 1952–1991 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
1980–1990
4.72%
58.6%
$493
1990–1991
4.21%
4.2%
$514
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1952
$100 from 1952 had already become $158 by
1972, on its way to $514 in 1991; 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: 1991
In 1991, prices rose 4.2% and $100 from 1952 had the buying
power of $514; the year's average CPI of 136.2 is the level
behind every 1991 figure on this page.
1991 opened in recession and closed in a slow, uneven recovery. The median household earned
about $30,100 for the year, gas averaged $1.14 a gallon, and a new home cost roughly $120,000.
Inflation ran at 4.2% for the year, down from 1990’s oil-driven spike, as the Gulf War ended in
February and crude oil retreated from its autumn highs. The recession itself, dated by the
National Bureau of Economic Research from July 1990 to March 1991, was technically over by
spring, but hiring stayed weak well into 1992, the stretch economists came to call the jobless
recovery. The Federal Reserve kept cutting interest rates through the year to support growth,
reversing the tightening campaign it had run through the late 1980s. In April the federal
minimum wage rose to $4.25 an hour, the second step of an increase from the $3.35 rate that had
held since 1981. The Postal Service had already raised the cost of a first-class stamp to 29
cents that February. It was the first full year of the decade without an oil shock driving
prices, even if the job market took longer to follow.
MLA: “Inflation from 1952 to 1991: $100 is worth $514 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1952-to-1991/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1952 to 1991. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1952-to-1991/