$100 in 1952 is worth $782 in 2007,
because prices increased 682.4% over that period, an average of
3.81% a year.
$100 in 1952 has
the same buying power as
$782
in 2007
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
682.4%
Average inflation rate
3.81% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$782
Price difference ($100 base)
$682
CPI in 1952
26.5
CPI in 2007
207.342
Inflation in 1952
1.92%
Inflation in 2007
2.85%
$100 in 1952 → 2007
$782
$100 in 2007 → 1952
$12.78
What happened to prices between 1952 and 2007
Between 1952 and 2007, the Consumer Price Index went from 26.5 to 207.342.
Cumulatively, prices increased 682.4%, which works out to an average of
3.81% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1952 bought what
$0.13 buys in 2007: the 1952 dollar
lost 87.2% of its purchasing power over
these 55 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 2007 at the same ratio, 7.82: $1,000 becomes
$7,824, and $10,000 becomes $78,242.
Amount in 1952
Value in 2007
$1.00
$7.82
$5.00
$39.12
$10.00
$78.24
$20.00
$156
$50.00
$391
$100
$782
$500
$3,912
$1,000
$7,824
$5,000
$39,121
$10,000
$78,242
$100,000
$782,423
$1,000,000
$7,824,226
Inflation by spending category, 1952–2007
Between 1952 and 2007, medical care rose the most, up 2002.1%, while apparel rose the least, up 173.6%, against 682.4% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1952
spending costs in 2007, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1952 →
All items (CPI-U)
3.81%
$782
Medical care
5.69%
$2,102
Transportation
3.65%
$719
Food
3.62%
$707
Apparel
1.85%
$274
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 2007
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 1952–2007 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
2000–2007
2.69%
20.4%
$782
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1952
$100 from 1952 had already become $311 by
1980, on its way to $782 in 2007; 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: 2007
In 2007, prices rose 2.8% and $100 from 1952 had the buying
power of $782; the year's average CPI of 207.342 is the level
behind every 2007 figure on this page.
Inflation was 2.8% in 2007, with gasoline averaging $2.80 a gallon, but the year is better
known for what began underneath prices. In August, French bank BNP Paribas froze funds tied to
U.S. subprime mortgages, and credit between banks tightened. The Federal Reserve responded with
a half-point cut on September 18, its first in four years, and took the policy rate from 5.25% to
4.25% by December. The economy peaked that month, by the National Bureau of Economic Research’s
dating, and the Great Recession followed. The median household earned about $50,200, and the
median new home cost $247,900. Congress ended the decade-long freeze on the federal minimum wage
in May, with the first of three steps to $5.85 in July. A first-class stamp cost 41 cents.
MLA: “Inflation from 1952 to 2007: $100 is worth $782 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1952-to-2007/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1952 to 2007. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1952-to-2007/