$100 in 1952 is worth $925 in 2017,
because prices increased 825.0% over that period, an average of
3.48% a year.
$100 in 1952 has
the same buying power as
$925
in 2017
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
825.0%
Average inflation rate
3.48% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$925
Price difference ($100 base)
$825
CPI in 1952
26.5
CPI in 2017
245.12
Inflation in 1952
1.92%
Inflation in 2017
2.13%
$100 in 1952 → 2017
$925
$100 in 2017 → 1952
$10.81
What happened to prices between 1952 and 2017
Between 1952 and 2017, the Consumer Price Index went from 26.5 to 245.12.
Cumulatively, prices increased 825.0%, which works out to an average of
3.48% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1952 bought what
$0.11 buys in 2017: the 1952 dollar
lost 89.2% of its purchasing power over
these 65 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 2017 at the same ratio, 9.25: $1,000 becomes
$9,250, and $10,000 becomes $92,498.
Amount in 1952
Value in 2017
$1.00
$9.25
$5.00
$46.25
$10.00
$92.50
$20.00
$185
$50.00
$462
$100
$925
$500
$4,625
$1,000
$9,250
$5,000
$46,249
$10,000
$92,498
$100,000
$924,981
$1,000,000
$9,249,811
Inflation by spending category, 1952–2017
Between 1952 and 2017, medical care rose the most, up 2746.2%, while apparel rose the least, up 188.8%, against 825.0% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1952
spending costs in 2017, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1952 →
All items (CPI-U)
3.48%
$925
Medical care
5.29%
$2,846
Food
3.39%
$871
Transportation
3.22%
$784
Apparel
1.64%
$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 2017
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 1952–2017 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
2010–2017
1.69%
12.4%
$925
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1952
$100 from 1952 had already become $364 by
1982, on its way to $925 in 2017; 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: 2017
In 2017, prices rose 2.1% and $100 from 1952 had the buying
power of $925; the year's average CPI of 245.12 is the level
behind every 2017 figure on this page.
2017 pushed consumer prices back above the Federal Reserve’s 2% target. The
CPI rose 2.1%, the first reading over 2% in five years, helped by a rebound
in energy after OPEC’s output cuts and by a storm-related spike at the pump:
Hurricane Harvey shut a large part of Gulf Coast refining in late August.
Gasoline averaged $2.42 a gallon, up from $2.14 in 2016.
Household incomes kept rising. The median household income reached $61,372,
and the median new home sold for about $322,100. The federal minimum wage
stayed at $7.25, its eighth year at that level, and a first-class stamp rose
to 49 cents.
The Fed raised rates three times, to 1.25–1.50%, and in October began
letting its bond holdings shrink. Congress passed the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act
in December, lowering the corporate rate to 21%. Even with unemployment near
4%, core inflation stayed under 2%, a puzzle that shaped Fed debates for the
next two years.
MLA: “Inflation from 1952 to 2017: $100 is worth $925 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1952-to-2017/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1952 to 2017. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1952-to-2017/