$100 in 1952 is worth $948 in 2018,
because prices increased 847.6% over that period, an average of
3.47% a year.
$100 in 1952 has
the same buying power as
$948
in 2018
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
847.6%
Average inflation rate
3.47% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$948
Price difference ($100 base)
$848
CPI in 1952
26.5
CPI in 2018
251.107
Inflation in 1952
1.92%
Inflation in 2018
2.44%
$100 in 1952 → 2018
$948
$100 in 2018 → 1952
$10.55
What happened to prices between 1952 and 2018
Between 1952 and 2018, the Consumer Price Index went from 26.5 to 251.107.
Cumulatively, prices increased 847.6%, which works out to an average of
3.47% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1952 bought what
$0.11 buys in 2018: the 1952 dollar
lost 89.4% of its purchasing power over
these 66 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 2018 at the same ratio, 9.48: $1,000 becomes
$9,476, and $10,000 becomes $94,757.
Amount in 1952
Value in 2018
$1.00
$9.48
$5.00
$47.38
$10.00
$94.76
$20.00
$190
$50.00
$474
$100
$948
$500
$4,738
$1,000
$9,476
$5,000
$47,379
$10,000
$94,757
$100,000
$947,574
$1,000,000
$9,475,736
Inflation by spending category, 1952–2018
Between 1952 and 2018, medical care rose the most, up 2802.4%, while apparel rose the least, up 188.9%, against 847.6% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1952
spending costs in 2018, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1952 →
All items (CPI-U)
3.47%
$948
Medical care
5.24%
$2,902
Food
3.36%
$883
Transportation
3.24%
$820
Apparel
1.62%
$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 2018
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 1952–2018 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
2010–2018
1.78%
15.2%
$948
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1952
$100 from 1952 had already become $429 by
1987, on its way to $948 in 2018; 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: 2018
In 2018, prices rose 2.4% and $100 from 1952 had the buying
power of $948; the year's average CPI of 251.107 is the level
behind every 2018 figure on this page.
2018 was the peak of the late-2010s expansion. Consumer prices rose 2.4%,
the fastest since 2011, with gasoline averaging $2.72 a gallon after a summer
high. Unemployment fell to 3.7% in September, the lowest since 1969, and median
household income reached $63,179. The median new home sold for about $331,800,
and a first-class stamp cost 50 cents. The federal minimum wage was still $7.25.
Trade policy became a price factor for the first time in decades. New tariffs
on steel, aluminum, and a growing list of Chinese goods raised costs for
manufacturers and some consumer products, and retaliation cut into exports of
soybeans and other farm goods.
The Federal Reserve, led from February by Jerome Powell, raised rates four
times to 2.25–2.50%. A stock-market drop of nearly 20% in the fourth quarter
led the Fed to signal a pause in early 2019. Oil fell from over $75 a barrel in
October to below $50 by December, which pulled headline inflation lower going
into the next year.
MLA: “Inflation from 1952 to 2018: $100 is worth $948 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1952-to-2018/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1952 to 2018. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1952-to-2018/