$100 in 1952 is worth $893 in 2014,
because prices increased 793.3% over that period, an average of
3.60% a year.
$100 in 1952 has
the same buying power as
$893
in 2014
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
793.3%
Average inflation rate
3.60% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$893
Price difference ($100 base)
$793
CPI in 1952
26.5
CPI in 2014
236.736
Inflation in 1952
1.92%
Inflation in 2014
1.62%
$100 in 1952 → 2014
$893
$100 in 2014 → 1952
$11.19
What happened to prices between 1952 and 2014
Between 1952 and 2014, the Consumer Price Index went from 26.5 to 236.736.
Cumulatively, prices increased 793.3%, which works out to an average of
3.60% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1952 bought what
$0.11 buys in 2014: the 1952 dollar
lost 88.8% of its purchasing power over
these 62 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 2014 at the same ratio, 8.93: $1,000 becomes
$8,933, and $10,000 becomes $89,334.
Amount in 1952
Value in 2014
$1.00
$8.93
$5.00
$44.67
$10.00
$89.33
$20.00
$179
$50.00
$447
$100
$893
$500
$4,467
$1,000
$8,933
$5,000
$44,667
$10,000
$89,334
$100,000
$893,343
$1,000,000
$8,933,434
Inflation by spending category, 1952–2014
Between 1952 and 2014, medical care rose the most, up 2506.5%, while apparel rose the least, up 193.1%, against 793.3% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1952
spending costs in 2014, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1952 →
All items (CPI-U)
3.60%
$893
Medical care
5.40%
$2,607
Food
3.50%
$846
Transportation
3.49%
$840
Apparel
1.75%
$293
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 2014
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 1952–2014 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
2010–2014
2.08%
8.6%
$893
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1952
$100 from 1952 had already become $364 by
1982, on its way to $893 in 2014; 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 5 years; the calculator above covers any pair of years.
The destination year: 2014
In 2014, prices rose 1.6% and $100 from 1952 had the buying
power of $893; the year's average CPI of 236.736 is the level
behind every 2014 figure on this page.
2014 ended with the sharpest oil price drop in years. Consumer prices rose
1.6% for the year, close to 2013’s pace, but the annual figure hid a shift at
the pump: crude oil fell from above $100 a barrel in June to below $60 in
December, and gasoline finished the year near $2.25 a gallon after averaging
$3.37 across 2014. The drop reflected record U.S. shale output, softer
global demand, and OPEC’s decision in November to keep producing.
For households, cheaper fuel arrived just as the labor market strengthened.
Median household income was $53,657, essentially flat on the prior year, and
the median new home sold for about $288,500. The federal minimum wage stayed
at $7.25 for a fifth year, and a first-class stamp rose to 49 cents.
The Federal Reserve ended its bond purchases in October but left its policy
rate at zero. A stronger dollar helped hold down import prices. Because
energy weighs heavily in the CPI, the late-year slide carried into 2015, which
posted the smallest annual increase of the decade.
MLA: “Inflation from 1952 to 2014: $100 is worth $893 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1952-to-2014/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1952 to 2014. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1952-to-2014/