$100 in 1952 is worth $906 in 2016,
because prices increased 805.7% over that period, an average of
3.50% a year.
$100 in 1952 has
the same buying power as
$906
in 2016
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
805.7%
Average inflation rate
3.50% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$906
Price difference ($100 base)
$806
CPI in 1952
26.5
CPI in 2016
240.007
Inflation in 1952
1.92%
Inflation in 2016
1.26%
$100 in 1952 → 2016
$906
$100 in 2016 → 1952
$11.04
What happened to prices between 1952 and 2016
Between 1952 and 2016, the Consumer Price Index went from 26.5 to 240.007.
Cumulatively, prices increased 805.7%, which works out to an average of
3.50% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1952 bought what
$0.11 buys in 2016: the 1952 dollar
lost 89.0% of its purchasing power over
these 64 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 2016 at the same ratio, 9.06: $1,000 becomes
$9,057, and $10,000 becomes $90,569.
Amount in 1952
Value in 2016
$1.00
$9.06
$5.00
$45.28
$10.00
$90.57
$20.00
$181
$50.00
$453
$100
$906
$500
$4,528
$1,000
$9,057
$5,000
$45,284
$10,000
$90,569
$100,000
$905,687
$1,000,000
$9,056,868
Inflation by spending category, 1952–2016
Between 1952 and 2016, medical care rose the most, up 2676.5%, while apparel rose the least, up 189.8%, against 805.7% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1952
spending costs in 2016, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1952 →
All items (CPI-U)
3.50%
$906
Medical care
5.33%
$2,776
Food
3.43%
$864
Transportation
3.22%
$758
Apparel
1.68%
$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 2016
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 1952–2016 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
2010–2016
1.61%
10.1%
$906
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1952
$100 from 1952 had already become $364 by
1982, on its way to $906 in 2016; 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: 2016
In 2016, prices rose 1.3% and $100 from 1952 had the buying
power of $906; the year's average CPI of 240.007 is the level
behind every 2016 figure on this page.
2016 opened with the cheapest oil in more than a decade and closed with a
change in political direction. Crude fell to about $26 a barrel in February,
and gasoline averaged $2.14 a gallon for the year, its lowest annual
average since 2004. Headline inflation was 1.3%, a modest rebound from 2015’s
0.1%, though prices excluding food and energy rose faster, driven by rents and
health care.
Median household income rose to $59,039, the second large gain in a row, and
the median new home sold for about $307,800. The federal minimum wage held at
$7.25, and a first-class stamp fell to 47 cents after a January rate cut, a
rare decrease.
Two votes changed the outlook. Britain’s June decision to leave the European
Union unsettled currency markets, and the U.S. election in November raised
expectations of tax cuts, deficits, and faster growth, sending long-term
interest rates higher. OPEC’s November output cut ended the oil slump, and the
Federal Reserve made its second rate increase in December, to 0.50–0.75%.
MLA: “Inflation from 1952 to 2016: $100 is worth $906 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1952-to-2016/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1952 to 2016. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1952-to-2016/