$100 in 1952 is worth $823 in 2010,
because prices increased 722.9% over that period, an average of
3.70% a year.
$100 in 1952 has
the same buying power as
$823
in 2010
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
722.9%
Average inflation rate
3.70% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$823
Price difference ($100 base)
$723
CPI in 1952
26.5
CPI in 2010
218.056
Inflation in 1952
1.92%
Inflation in 2010
1.64%
$100 in 1952 → 2010
$823
$100 in 2010 → 1952
$12.15
What happened to prices between 1952 and 2010
Between 1952 and 2010, the Consumer Price Index went from 26.5 to 218.056.
Cumulatively, prices increased 722.9%, which works out to an average of
3.70% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1952 bought what
$0.12 buys in 2010: the 1952 dollar
lost 87.8% of its purchasing power over
these 58 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 2010 at the same ratio, 8.23: $1,000 becomes
$8,229, and $10,000 becomes $82,285.
Amount in 1952
Value in 2010
$1.00
$8.23
$5.00
$41.14
$10.00
$82.29
$20.00
$165
$50.00
$411
$100
$823
$500
$4,114
$1,000
$8,229
$5,000
$41,143
$10,000
$82,285
$100,000
$822,853
$1,000,000
$8,228,528
Inflation by spending category, 1952–2010
Between 1952 and 2010, medical care rose the most, up 2226.0%, while apparel rose the least, up 174.7%, against 722.9% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1952
spending costs in 2010, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1952 →
All items (CPI-U)
3.70%
$823
Medical care
5.58%
$2,326
Food
3.57%
$765
Transportation
3.54%
$753
Apparel
1.76%
$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 2010
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 1952–2010 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
2000–2010
2.39%
26.6%
$823
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1952
$100 from 1952 had already become $311 by
1980, on its way to $823 in 2010; 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: 2010
In 2010, prices rose 1.6% and $100 from 1952 had the buying
power of $823; the year's average CPI of 218.056 is the level
behind every 2010 figure on this page.
2010 was a year of recovery without much price pressure. The CPI rose 1.6%, a
return to growth after 2009’s deflation, with gasoline averaging $2.78 a
gallon as energy prices climbed back from their recession lows. Housing costs
barely moved: millions of foreclosed and vacant homes kept rents soft, and the
median new home sold for about $221,800. The federal minimum wage stayed at
$7.25, the level set in July 2009, and a first-class stamp cost 44 cents.
The Federal Reserve was more worried about too little inflation than too
much. Its policy rate sat at 0–0.25%, and in November it announced a further
$600 billion of Treasury purchases to hold down long-term borrowing costs.
Congress passed the Dodd-Frank Act in July to tighten financial regulation,
while a 110 billion euro rescue of Greece in May showed that the crisis had
moved from American mortgages to European government debt. For anyone
comparing dollars across the decade, 2010 is a useful baseline: prices were
still close to their 2008 levels, and the years ahead brought a slow, steady
climb.
MLA: “Inflation from 1952 to 2010: $100 is worth $823 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1952-to-2010/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1952 to 2010. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1952-to-2010/