$100 in 1952 is worth $694 in 2003,
because prices increased 594.3% over that period, an average of
3.87% a year.
$100 in 1952 has
the same buying power as
$694
in 2003
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
594.3%
Average inflation rate
3.87% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$694
Price difference ($100 base)
$594
CPI in 1952
26.5
CPI in 2003
184
Inflation in 1952
1.92%
Inflation in 2003
2.28%
$100 in 1952 → 2003
$694
$100 in 2003 → 1952
$14.40
What happened to prices between 1952 and 2003
Between 1952 and 2003, the Consumer Price Index went from 26.5 to 184.
Cumulatively, prices increased 594.3%, which works out to an average of
3.87% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1952 bought what
$0.14 buys in 2003: the 1952 dollar
lost 85.6% of its purchasing power over
these 51 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 2003 at the same ratio, 6.94: $1,000 becomes
$6,943, and $10,000 becomes $69,434.
Amount in 1952
Value in 2003
$1.00
$6.94
$5.00
$34.72
$10.00
$69.43
$20.00
$139
$50.00
$347
$100
$694
$500
$3,472
$1,000
$6,943
$5,000
$34,717
$10,000
$69,434
$100,000
$694,340
$1,000,000
$6,943,396
Inflation by spending category, 1952–2003
Between 1952 and 2003, medical care rose the most, up 1679.0%, while apparel rose the least, up 177.9%, against 594.3% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1952
spending costs in 2003, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1952 →
All items (CPI-U)
3.87%
$694
Medical care
5.81%
$1,779
Food
3.67%
$627
Transportation
3.62%
$613
Apparel
2.02%
$278
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 2003
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 1952–2003 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
2000–2003
2.23%
6.9%
$694
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1952
$100 from 1952 had already become $246 by
1978, on its way to $694 in 2003; 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: 2003
In 2003, prices rose 2.3% and $100 from 1952 had the buying
power of $694; the year's average CPI of 184 is the level
behind every 2003 figure on this page.
Inflation was 2.3% in 2003, up from 1.6% in 2002, as gasoline climbed from $1.36 to $1.59 a
gallon around the March invasion of Iraq. Even so, the Federal Reserve spent the year worried
about prices being too low: on June 25 it cut its policy rate to 1.0%, the lowest since 1958,
and said the risk of deflation, though small, deserved a response. The median household earned
about $43,300 and a new home cost roughly $195,000. Congress passed a second round of tax cuts
in May, and the economy grew faster in the second half of the year than at any point since
1999. Hiring lagged the recovery, and unemployment peaked at 6.3% in June. A first-class stamp
stayed at 37 cents and the federal minimum wage at $5.15.
MLA: “Inflation from 1952 to 2003: $100 is worth $694 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1952-to-2003/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1952 to 2003. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1952-to-2003/