$100 in 1952 is worth $965 in 2019,
because prices increased 864.7% over that period, an average of
3.44% a year.
$100 in 1952 has
the same buying power as
$965
in 2019
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
864.7%
Average inflation rate
3.44% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$965
Price difference ($100 base)
$865
CPI in 1952
26.5
CPI in 2019
255.657
Inflation in 1952
1.92%
Inflation in 2019
1.81%
$100 in 1952 → 2019
$965
$100 in 2019 → 1952
$10.37
What happened to prices between 1952 and 2019
Between 1952 and 2019, the Consumer Price Index went from 26.5 to 255.657.
Cumulatively, prices increased 864.7%, which works out to an average of
3.44% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1952 bought what
$0.10 buys in 2019: the 1952 dollar
lost 89.6% of its purchasing power over
these 67 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 2019 at the same ratio, 9.65: $1,000 becomes
$9,647, and $10,000 becomes $96,474.
Amount in 1952
Value in 2019
$1.00
$9.65
$5.00
$48.24
$10.00
$96.47
$20.00
$193
$50.00
$482
$100
$965
$500
$4,824
$1,000
$9,647
$5,000
$48,237
$10,000
$96,474
$100,000
$964,743
$1,000,000
$9,647,434
Inflation by spending category, 1952–2019
Between 1952 and 2019, medical care rose the most, up 2884.5%, while apparel rose the least, up 185.2%, against 864.7% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1952
spending costs in 2019, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1952 →
All items (CPI-U)
3.44%
$965
Medical care
5.20%
$2,985
Food
3.33%
$900
Transportation
3.19%
$817
Apparel
1.58%
$285
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 2019
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 1952–2019 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
2010–2019
1.78%
17.2%
$965
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1952
$100 from 1952 had already become $429 by
1987, on its way to $965 in 2019; 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: 2019
In 2019, prices rose 1.8% and $100 from 1952 had the buying
power of $965; the year's average CPI of 255.657 is the level
behind every 2019 figure on this page.
2019 was the last ordinary year before COVID-19. Consumer prices rose 1.8%,
slightly under the Federal Reserve’s 2% target, with gasoline averaging
$2.60 a gallon. Median household income jumped to $68,703, the highest on
record up to that point, and the median new home sold for about $328,000. A
first-class stamp rose to 55 cents.
The Fed reversed course. After four increases in 2018, it cut rates three
times, to 1.50–1.75%, citing slower global growth, trade tensions, and low
inflation. In July the expansion that began in June 2009 became the longest in
U.S. records, and in August the yield curve briefly inverted, a signal
investors read as a recession warning.
For workers at the bottom of the pay scale, 2019 marked a milestone of a
different kind. The federal minimum wage stayed at $7.25 and reached its tenth
year without an increase, the longest gap since the wage was first set. Because
prices had climbed about 19% since it was last raised in 2009, its buying power
was lower than at any point in that span.
MLA: “Inflation from 1952 to 2019: $100 is worth $965 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1952-to-2019/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1952 to 2019. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1952-to-2019/