$100 in 1952 is worth $866 in 2012,
because prices increased 766.4% over that period, an average of
3.66% a year.
$100 in 1952 has
the same buying power as
$866
in 2012
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
766.4%
Average inflation rate
3.66% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$866
Price difference ($100 base)
$766
CPI in 1952
26.5
CPI in 2012
229.594
Inflation in 1952
1.92%
Inflation in 2012
2.07%
$100 in 1952 → 2012
$866
$100 in 2012 → 1952
$11.54
What happened to prices between 1952 and 2012
Between 1952 and 2012, the Consumer Price Index went from 26.5 to 229.594.
Cumulatively, prices increased 766.4%, which works out to an average of
3.66% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1952 bought what
$0.12 buys in 2012: the 1952 dollar
lost 88.5% of its purchasing power over
these 60 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 2012 at the same ratio, 8.66: $1,000 becomes
$8,664, and $10,000 becomes $86,639.
Amount in 1952
Value in 2012
$1.00
$8.66
$5.00
$43.32
$10.00
$86.64
$20.00
$173
$50.00
$433
$100
$866
$500
$4,332
$1,000
$8,664
$5,000
$43,320
$10,000
$86,639
$100,000
$866,392
$1,000,000
$8,663,925
Inflation by spending category, 1952–2012
Between 1952 and 2012, medical care rose the most, up 2384.6%, while apparel rose the least, up 190.3%, against 766.4% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1952
spending costs in 2012, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1952 →
All items (CPI-U)
3.66%
$866
Medical care
5.50%
$2,485
Transportation
3.62%
$846
Food
3.56%
$815
Apparel
1.79%
$290
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 2012
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 1952–2012 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
2010–2012
2.61%
5.3%
$866
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1952
$100 from 1952 had already become $364 by
1982, on its way to $866 in 2012; 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: 2012
In 2012, prices rose 2.1% and $100 from 1952 had the buying
power of $866; the year's average CPI of 229.594 is the level
behind every 2012 figure on this page.
2012 put a number on what the Federal Reserve was aiming for. In January the
Fed announced a 2% inflation target, and consumer prices rose 2.1% for the
year, almost exactly on it. Gasoline averaged $3.62 a gallon, another annual
high, but the pace of increase cooled from 2011’s 3.2% as food and core prices
grew more slowly.
The bigger story was housing and jobs. Home prices began to recover, and the
median new home sold for about $245,200, up from $227,200 the year before.
Median household income was $51,017. The federal minimum wage held at $7.25,
and a first-class stamp rose to 45 cents.
In September the Fed started a third round of asset purchases, this one with
no fixed end date, aimed at lowering unemployment. Overseas, the European
Central Bank’s July pledge to do “whatever it takes” to save the euro calmed
bond markets. A summer drought across the Midwest drove corn and soybean
prices to records, a shock that reached grocery shelves only partly, because
most of what shoppers pay for food covers processing and transport rather than
raw crops.
MLA: “Inflation from 1952 to 2012: $100 is worth $866 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1952-to-2012/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1952 to 2012. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1952-to-2012/