$100 in 1952 is worth $679 in 2002,
because prices increased 578.9% over that period, an average of
3.90% a year.
$100 in 1952 has
the same buying power as
$679
in 2002
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
578.9%
Average inflation rate
3.90% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$679
Price difference ($100 base)
$579
CPI in 1952
26.5
CPI in 2002
179.9
Inflation in 1952
1.92%
Inflation in 2002
1.58%
$100 in 1952 → 2002
$679
$100 in 2002 → 1952
$14.73
What happened to prices between 1952 and 2002
Between 1952 and 2002, the Consumer Price Index went from 26.5 to 179.9.
Cumulatively, prices increased 578.9%, which works out to an average of
3.90% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1952 bought what
$0.15 buys in 2002: the 1952 dollar
lost 85.3% of its purchasing power over
these 50 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 2002 at the same ratio, 6.79: $1,000 becomes
$6,789, and $10,000 becomes $67,887.
Amount in 1952
Value in 2002
$1.00
$6.79
$5.00
$33.94
$10.00
$67.89
$20.00
$136
$50.00
$339
$100
$679
$500
$3,394
$1,000
$6,789
$5,000
$33,943
$10,000
$67,887
$100,000
$678,868
$1,000,000
$6,788,679
Inflation by spending category, 1952–2002
Between 1952 and 2002, medical care rose the most, up 1610.2%, while apparel rose the least, up 185.1%, against 578.9% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1952
spending costs in 2002, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1952 →
All items (CPI-U)
3.90%
$679
Medical care
5.84%
$1,710
Food
3.70%
$614
Transportation
3.63%
$595
Apparel
2.12%
$285
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 2002
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 1952–2002 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
2000–2002
2.21%
4.5%
$679
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1952
$100 from 1952 had already become $215 by
1976, on its way to $679 in 2002; 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: 2002
In 2002, prices rose 1.6% and $100 from 1952 had the buying
power of $679; the year's average CPI of 179.9 is the level
behind every 2002 figure on this page.
The CPI rose 1.6% in 2002, the lowest annual rate of the decade so far, with gasoline down to an
average of $1.36 a gallon and slack in the labor market keeping wage pressure low. The median
household earned about $42,400, and a new home cost roughly $187,600, an increase of about 7%
from the year before as low mortgage rates began to lift housing. The Federal Reserve cut its
policy rate to 1.25% in November. Stocks were moving the other way: after the Enron and WorldCom
scandals, the S&P 500 hit its bear-market low on October 9, about 49% below its March 2000
peak, and Congress passed the Sarbanes-Oxley Act in July to tighten corporate accounting rules.
On January 1, euro banknotes and coins replaced national currencies in 12 European countries. A
first-class stamp rose to 37 cents in June, and the federal minimum wage stayed at $5.15.
MLA: “Inflation from 1952 to 2002: $100 is worth $679 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1952-to-2002/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1952 to 2002. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1952-to-2002/