$100 in 1952 is worth $615 in 1998,
because prices increased 515.1% over that period, an average of
4.03% a year.
$100 in 1952 has
the same buying power as
$615
in 1998
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
515.1%
Average inflation rate
4.03% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$615
Price difference ($100 base)
$515
CPI in 1952
26.5
CPI in 1998
163
Inflation in 1952
1.92%
Inflation in 1998
1.56%
$100 in 1952 → 1998
$615
$100 in 1998 → 1952
$16.26
What happened to prices between 1952 and 1998
Between 1952 and 1998, the Consumer Price Index went from 26.5 to 163.
Cumulatively, prices increased 515.1%, which works out to an average of
4.03% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1952 bought what
$0.16 buys in 1998: the 1952 dollar
lost 83.7% of its purchasing power over
these 46 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 1998 at the same ratio, 6.15: $1,000 becomes
$6,151, and $10,000 becomes $61,509.
Amount in 1952
Value in 1998
$1.00
$6.15
$5.00
$30.75
$10.00
$61.51
$20.00
$123
$50.00
$308
$100
$615
$500
$3,075
$1,000
$6,151
$5,000
$30,755
$10,000
$61,509
$100,000
$615,094
$1,000,000
$6,150,943
Inflation by spending category, 1952–1998
Between 1952 and 1998, medical care rose the most, up 1349.7%, while apparel rose the least, up 205.7%, against 515.1% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1952
spending costs in 1998, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1952 →
All items (CPI-U)
4.03%
$615
Medical care
5.99%
$1,450
Food
3.82%
$560
Transportation
3.78%
$551
Apparel
2.46%
$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 1998
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 1952–1998 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
1990–1998
2.80%
24.7%
$615
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1952
$100 from 1952 had already become $186 by
1974, on its way to $615 in 1998; 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: 1998
In 1998, prices rose 1.6% and $100 from 1952 had the buying
power of $615; the year's average CPI of 163 is the level
behind every 1998 figure on this page.
The median household earned about $38,900 in 1998, gas averaged just $1.06 a gallon, its
cheapest of the decade, and a new home cost roughly $152,500. Inflation ran at 1.6% for the
year, the lowest of the 1990s, as a glut of crude oil, worsened by weak demand from Asia’s
slowdown, pushed prices below $11 a barrel by December and pulled pump prices down with them.
The calm at home came alongside real turmoil abroad: in August, Russia devalued the ruble and
defaulted on its domestic debt, rattling markets already unsettled by the Asian financial
crisis, and in September the hedge fund Long-Term Capital Management collapsed after its highly
leveraged bets went bad, prompting the Federal Reserve to organize a private-sector bailout by
more than a dozen banks to prevent a disorderly unwinding of its roughly $100 billion in
positions. The Fed also cut interest rates three times that fall, in September, October, and
November, an insurance policy against the global financial turmoil spreading to the U.S.
economy. Cheap oil and a well-timed set of rate cuts left 1998 as a year the U.S. economy
absorbed two foreign financial crises without much of a dent at home.
MLA: “Inflation from 1952 to 1998: $100 is worth $615 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1952-to-1998/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1952 to 1998. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1952-to-1998/