$100 in 1952 is worth $761 in 2006,
because prices increased 660.8% over that period, an average of
3.83% a year.
$100 in 1952 has
the same buying power as
$761
in 2006
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
660.8%
Average inflation rate
3.83% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$761
Price difference ($100 base)
$661
CPI in 1952
26.5
CPI in 2006
201.6
Inflation in 1952
1.92%
Inflation in 2006
3.23%
$100 in 1952 → 2006
$761
$100 in 2006 → 1952
$13.14
What happened to prices between 1952 and 2006
Between 1952 and 2006, the Consumer Price Index went from 26.5 to 201.6.
Cumulatively, prices increased 660.8%, which works out to an average of
3.83% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1952 bought what
$0.13 buys in 2006: the 1952 dollar
lost 86.9% of its purchasing power over
these 54 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 2006 at the same ratio, 7.61: $1,000 becomes
$7,608, and $10,000 becomes $76,075.
Amount in 1952
Value in 2006
$1.00
$7.61
$5.00
$38.04
$10.00
$76.08
$20.00
$152
$50.00
$380
$100
$761
$500
$3,804
$1,000
$7,608
$5,000
$38,038
$10,000
$76,075
$100,000
$760,755
$1,000,000
$7,607,547
Inflation by spending category, 1952–2006
Between 1952 and 2006, medical care rose the most, up 1913.2%, while apparel rose the least, up 174.7%, against 660.8% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1952
spending costs in 2006, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1952 →
All items (CPI-U)
3.83%
$761
Medical care
5.72%
$2,013
Transportation
3.68%
$704
Food
3.61%
$680
Apparel
1.89%
$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 2006
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 1952–2006 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
2000–2006
2.66%
17.1%
$761
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1952
$100 from 1952 had already become $246 by
1978, on its way to $761 in 2006; 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: 2006
In 2006, prices rose 3.2% and $100 from 1952 had the buying
power of $761; the year's average CPI of 201.6 is the level
behind every 2006 figure on this page.
Inflation was 3.2% in 2006 and gasoline averaged $2.59 a gallon, up 29 cents from 2005. The
median household earned about $48,200 and the median new home cost $246,500, a gain of about
2% after a 13% jump in 2004 and 9% in 2005. National home prices, by the S&P/Case-Shiller
index, peaked in mid-2006. Ben Bernanke replaced Alan Greenspan as Federal Reserve chair on
February 1, and on June 29 the Fed raised its policy rate to 5.25%, the last of 17 straight
quarter-point increases. It held there for over a year. A first-class stamp rose to 39 cents in
January, and the federal minimum wage was $5.15 for the ninth full year in a row.
MLA: “Inflation from 1952 to 2006: $100 is worth $761 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1952-to-2006/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1952 to 2006. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1952-to-2006/