$100 in 1952 is worth $606 in 1997,
because prices increased 505.7% over that period, an average of
4.08% a year.
$100 in 1952 has
the same buying power as
$606
in 1997
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
505.7%
Average inflation rate
4.08% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$606
Price difference ($100 base)
$506
CPI in 1952
26.5
CPI in 1997
160.5
Inflation in 1952
1.92%
Inflation in 1997
2.29%
$100 in 1952 → 1997
$606
$100 in 1997 → 1952
$16.51
What happened to prices between 1952 and 1997
Between 1952 and 1997, the Consumer Price Index went from 26.5 to 160.5.
Cumulatively, prices increased 505.7%, which works out to an average of
4.08% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1952 bought what
$0.17 buys in 1997: the 1952 dollar
lost 83.5% of its purchasing power over
these 45 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 1997 at the same ratio, 6.06: $1,000 becomes
$6,057, and $10,000 becomes $60,566.
Amount in 1952
Value in 1997
$1.00
$6.06
$5.00
$30.28
$10.00
$60.57
$20.00
$121
$50.00
$303
$100
$606
$500
$3,028
$1,000
$6,057
$5,000
$30,283
$10,000
$60,566
$100,000
$605,660
$1,000,000
$6,056,604
Inflation by spending category, 1952–1997
Between 1952 and 1997, medical care rose the most, up 1304.8%, while apparel rose the least, up 205.5%, against 505.7% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1952
spending costs in 1997, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1952 →
All items (CPI-U)
4.08%
$606
Medical care
6.05%
$1,405
Transportation
3.91%
$561
Food
3.85%
$548
Apparel
2.51%
$306
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 1997
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 1952–1997 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
1990–1997
2.98%
22.8%
$606
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1952
$100 from 1952 had already become $186 by
1974, on its way to $606 in 1997; 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: 1997
In 1997, prices rose 2.3% and $100 from 1952 had the buying
power of $606; the year's average CPI of 160.5 is the level
behind every 1997 figure on this page.
The median household earned about $37,000 in 1997, gas averaged $1.23 a gallon, and a new home
cost roughly $146,000. Inflation ran at 2.3% for the year, its lowest reading since the
mid-1980s, as a strong dollar and falling import prices helped keep costs in check at home even
as trouble built abroad. In July, Thailand devalued the baht, and the currency collapse that
followed spread within months to Indonesia, South Korea, and other Southeast Asian economies,
forcing IMF bailouts and years of recession across the region, though the crisis had little
immediate effect on U.S. prices. At home, Washington had a calmer year: in August, President
Clinton and Congress agreed on the Balanced Budget Act and the Taxpayer Relief Act, which cut
capital gains tax rates, created the Roth IRA, and set the federal budget on a path to its first
surplus in nearly three decades. In September, the federal minimum wage completed a two-step
rise to $5.15 an hour, where it would stay for a decade. Low inflation, a firming budget picture,
and a crisis unfolding an ocean away made 1997 a year the U.S. economy looked stronger than much
of the rest of the world’s.
MLA: “Inflation from 1952 to 1997: $100 is worth $606 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1952-to-1997/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1952 to 1997. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1952-to-1997/