$100 in 1952 is worth $894 in 2015,
because prices increased 794.4% over that period, an average of
3.54% a year.
$100 in 1952 has
the same buying power as
$894
in 2015
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
794.4%
Average inflation rate
3.54% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$894
Price difference ($100 base)
$794
CPI in 1952
26.5
CPI in 2015
237.017
Inflation in 1952
1.92%
Inflation in 2015
0.12%
$100 in 1952 → 2015
$894
$100 in 2015 → 1952
$11.18
What happened to prices between 1952 and 2015
Between 1952 and 2015, the Consumer Price Index went from 26.5 to 237.017.
Cumulatively, prices increased 794.4%, which works out to an average of
3.54% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1952 bought what
$0.11 buys in 2015: the 1952 dollar
lost 88.8% of its purchasing power over
these 63 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 2015 at the same ratio, 8.94: $1,000 becomes
$8,944, and $10,000 becomes $89,440.
Amount in 1952
Value in 2015
$1.00
$8.94
$5.00
$44.72
$10.00
$89.44
$20.00
$179
$50.00
$447
$100
$894
$500
$4,472
$1,000
$8,944
$5,000
$44,720
$10,000
$89,440
$100,000
$894,404
$1,000,000
$8,944,038
Inflation by spending category, 1952–2015
Between 1952 and 2015, medical care rose the most, up 2575.2%, while apparel rose the least, up 189.4%, against 794.4% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1952
spending costs in 2015, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1952 →
All items (CPI-U)
3.54%
$894
Medical care
5.36%
$2,675
Food
3.48%
$861
Transportation
3.30%
$775
Apparel
1.70%
$289
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 2015
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 1952–2015 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
2010–2015
1.68%
8.7%
$894
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1952
$100 from 1952 had already become $364 by
1982, on its way to $894 in 2015; 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: 2015
In 2015, prices rose 0.1% and $100 from 1952 had the buying
power of $894; the year's average CPI of 237.017 is the level
behind every 2015 figure on this page.
2015 was almost a year with no inflation at all. Consumer prices rose 0.1%,
the smallest increase since the 2009 decline, because energy prices kept
falling. Gasoline averaged $2.45 a gallon, down from $3.37 in 2014, and a
strong dollar made imported goods cheaper. The picture was different outside
food and energy: core prices rose about 1.8% as rents and medical costs
climbed.
Incomes finally showed real progress. Median household income reached $56,516,
a large jump from $53,657, and the median new home sold for about $296,400. The
federal minimum wage stayed at $7.25, and a first-class stamp stayed at 49
cents.
The Federal Reserve chose December to end its zero-rate policy, raising the
target range to 0.25–0.50% for the first time since 2006. It moved even
though headline inflation was far under 2%, arguing that the drag from
energy was temporary. Earlier, a currency shift in China in August had shaken
global markets and pushed oil below $40 a barrel. Prices in 2015 ended
the year barely above their 2014 level.
MLA: “Inflation from 1952 to 2015: $100 is worth $894 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1952-to-2015/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1952 to 2015. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1952-to-2015/