$100 in 1952 is worth $650 in 2000,
because prices increased 549.8% over that period, an average of
3.98% a year.
$100 in 1952 has
the same buying power as
$650
in 2000
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
549.8%
Average inflation rate
3.98% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$650
Price difference ($100 base)
$550
CPI in 1952
26.5
CPI in 2000
172.2
Inflation in 1952
1.92%
Inflation in 2000
3.36%
$100 in 1952 → 2000
$650
$100 in 2000 → 1952
$15.39
What happened to prices between 1952 and 2000
Between 1952 and 2000, the Consumer Price Index went from 26.5 to 172.2.
Cumulatively, prices increased 549.8%, which works out to an average of
3.98% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1952 bought what
$0.15 buys in 2000: the 1952 dollar
lost 84.6% of its purchasing power over
these 48 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 2000 at the same ratio, 6.50: $1,000 becomes
$6,498, and $10,000 becomes $64,981.
Amount in 1952
Value in 2000
$1.00
$6.50
$5.00
$32.49
$10.00
$64.98
$20.00
$130
$50.00
$325
$100
$650
$500
$3,249
$1,000
$6,498
$5,000
$32,491
$10,000
$64,981
$100,000
$649,811
$1,000,000
$6,498,113
Inflation by spending category, 1952–2000
Between 1952 and 2000, medical care rose the most, up 1461.7%, while apparel rose the least, up 197.9%, against 549.8% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1952
spending costs in 2000, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1952 →
All items (CPI-U)
3.98%
$650
Medical care
5.89%
$1,562
Transportation
3.79%
$596
Food
3.75%
$585
Apparel
2.30%
$298
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 2000
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 1952–2000 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
1990–2000
2.80%
31.8%
$650
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1952
$100 from 1952 had already become $215 by
1976, on its way to $650 in 2000; 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: 2000
In 2000, prices rose 3.4% and $100 from 1952 had the buying
power of $650; the year's average CPI of 172.2 is the level
behind every 2000 figure on this page.
Inflation ran at 3.4% in 2000, the highest annual rate since 1991, as an economy growing
above 4% and a rise in oil prices pushed the CPI up. The median household earned about
$42,100, gas averaged $1.51 a gallon, and a new home cost roughly $169,000. The Federal
Reserve had raised interest rates six times since mid-1999 and stopped at 6.5% in May. By
then the stock market had already turned: the Nasdaq hit its record of 5,048 on March 10 and
lost about 39% of its value by December. Consumer prices did not reflect the slowdown yet,
which is why the Fed held rates high through the year even as technology companies began to
fail. In October, Congress granted China permanent normal trade relations, a decision that
would help hold down the price of manufactured goods for years. A first-class stamp cost 33
cents and the federal minimum wage was $5.15. The recession of 2001 brought inflation back
down.
MLA: “Inflation from 1952 to 2000: $100 is worth $650 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1952-to-2000/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1952 to 2000. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1952-to-2000/