$100 in 1952 is worth $737 in 2005,
because prices increased 637.0% over that period, an average of
3.84% a year.
$100 in 1952 has
the same buying power as
$737
in 2005
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
637.0%
Average inflation rate
3.84% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$737
Price difference ($100 base)
$637
CPI in 1952
26.5
CPI in 2005
195.3
Inflation in 1952
1.92%
Inflation in 2005
3.39%
$100 in 1952 → 2005
$737
$100 in 2005 → 1952
$13.57
What happened to prices between 1952 and 2005
Between 1952 and 2005, the Consumer Price Index went from 26.5 to 195.3.
Cumulatively, prices increased 637.0%, which works out to an average of
3.84% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1952 bought what
$0.14 buys in 2005: the 1952 dollar
lost 86.4% of its purchasing power over
these 53 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 2005 at the same ratio, 7.37: $1,000 becomes
$7,370, and $10,000 becomes $73,698.
Amount in 1952
Value in 2005
$1.00
$7.37
$5.00
$36.85
$10.00
$73.70
$20.00
$147
$50.00
$368
$100
$737
$500
$3,685
$1,000
$7,370
$5,000
$36,849
$10,000
$73,698
$100,000
$736,981
$1,000,000
$7,369,811
Inflation by spending category, 1952–2005
Between 1952 and 2005, medical care rose the most, up 1835.3%, while apparel rose the least, up 174.7%, against 637.0% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1952
spending costs in 2005, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1952 →
All items (CPI-U)
3.84%
$737
Medical care
5.75%
$1,935
Transportation
3.67%
$677
Food
3.64%
$664
Apparel
1.93%
$275
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 2005
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 1952–2005 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
2000–2005
2.55%
13.4%
$737
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1952
$100 from 1952 had already become $246 by
1978, on its way to $737 in 2005; 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: 2005
In 2005, prices rose 3.4% and $100 from 1952 had the buying
power of $737; the year's average CPI of 195.3 is the level
behind every 2005 figure on this page.
Inflation rose to 3.4% in 2005, up from 2.7% in 2004, as gasoline averaged $2.30 a gallon,
compared with $1.88 the year before. Hurricane Katrina made landfall on August 29, and with
Hurricane Rita weeks later it disrupted Gulf Coast refining, pushing the national average
price past $3 in early September. The Federal Reserve raised its policy rate at every meeting,
from 2.25% to 4.25%, to keep energy costs from feeding into other prices. The median household
earned about $46,300, up 4.5% from 2004, but the median new home price rose a further 9%, to
$240,900. In April, Congress passed a bankruptcy law that made it harder to clear debts. A
first-class stamp stayed at 37 cents until January 2006, and the federal minimum wage stayed
at $5.15.
MLA: “Inflation from 1952 to 2005: $100 is worth $737 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1952-to-2005/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1952 to 2005. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1952-to-2005/