$100 in 1952 is worth $529 in 1992,
because prices increased 429.4% over that period, an average of
4.25% a year.
$100 in 1952 has
the same buying power as
$529
in 1992
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
429.4%
Average inflation rate
4.25% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$529
Price difference ($100 base)
$429
CPI in 1952
26.5
CPI in 1992
140.3
Inflation in 1952
1.92%
Inflation in 1992
3.01%
$100 in 1952 → 1992
$529
$100 in 1992 → 1952
$18.89
What happened to prices between 1952 and 1992
Between 1952 and 1992, the Consumer Price Index went from 26.5 to 140.3.
Cumulatively, prices increased 429.4%, which works out to an average of
4.25% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1952 bought what
$0.19 buys in 1992: the 1952 dollar
lost 81.1% of its purchasing power over
these 40 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 1992 at the same ratio, 5.29: $1,000 becomes
$5,294, and $10,000 becomes $52,943.
Amount in 1952
Value in 1992
$1.00
$5.29
$5.00
$26.47
$10.00
$52.94
$20.00
$106
$50.00
$265
$100
$529
$500
$2,647
$1,000
$5,294
$5,000
$26,472
$10,000
$52,943
$100,000
$529,434
$1,000,000
$5,294,340
Inflation by spending category, 1952–1992
Between 1952 and 1992, medical care rose the most, up 1038.3%, while apparel rose the least, up 203.2%, against 429.4% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1952
spending costs in 1992, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1952 →
All items (CPI-U)
4.25%
$529
Medical care
6.27%
$1,138
Transportation
4.06%
$492
Food
4.00%
$480
Apparel
2.81%
$303
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 1992
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 1952–1992 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
1990–1992
3.61%
7.3%
$529
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1952
$100 from 1952 had already become $158 by
1972, on its way to $529 in 1992; 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: 1992
In 1992, prices rose 3.0% and $100 from 1952 had the buying
power of $529; the year's average CPI of 140.3 is the level
behind every 1992 figure on this page.
1992 was the year the recovery finally showed up in the numbers, if not yet in hiring. The
median household earned about $30,600, gas averaged $1.13 a gallon, and a new home cost roughly
$121,500. Inflation ran at 3.0% for the year, its calmest reading since the mid-1980s, as energy
prices stayed well below their 1990 peak and a slack labor market kept a lid on wages and prices
alike. The Federal Reserve kept cutting its policy rate through the year, reaching about 3% by
September, the lowest in decades, trying to jump-start hiring more than a year after the 1990-91
recession officially ended. The sluggish job market became the defining issue of the November
election, and Bill Clinton unseated incumbent George H.W. Bush, whose approval ratings had
fallen sharply from their post-Gulf War highs. In August, Hurricane Andrew tore through South
Florida, the costliest U.S. hurricane on record at the time, causing tens of billions of dollars
in damage and reshaping how insurers priced catastrophe risk for years afterward. Falling rates,
a costly hurricane, and an election fought over jobs defined a recovery that showed up in the
data well before it showed up in most paychecks.
MLA: “Inflation from 1952 to 1992: $100 is worth $529 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1952-to-1992/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1952 to 1992. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1952-to-1992/