$100 in 1953 is worth $101 in 1954,
because prices increased 0.7% over that period, an average of
0.75% a year.
$100 in 1953 has
the same buying power as
$101
in 1954
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
0.7%
Average inflation rate
0.75% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$101
Price difference ($100 base)
$0.75
CPI in 1953
26.7
CPI in 1954
26.9
Inflation in 1953
0.75%
Inflation in 1954
0.75%
$100 in 1953 → 1954
$101
$100 in 1954 → 1953
$99.26
What happened to prices between 1953 and 1954
Between 1953 and 1954, the Consumer Price Index went from 26.7 to 26.9.
Cumulatively, prices increased 0.7%, which works out to an average of
0.75% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1953 bought what
$0.99 buys in 1954: the 1953 dollar
lost 0.7% of its purchasing power over
these 1 years.
Consumer prices rose 0.8% in 1953, down from 1952’s 1.9% as
fighting in Korea wound toward a truce and three years of wartime buying
pressure finally eased. The year’s biggest shock came from Moscow: Soviet
leader Joseph Stalin died March 5 after nearly three decades in power, the
first change of Soviet leadership since the 1920s, opening a period of
uncertainty over how his successors would deal with the West. Washington
used the calmer backdrop to unwind its own wartime machinery. Authority
for the price and wage controls imposed in 1951 lapsed that spring, as the
Eisenhower administration, which favored free markets over controls, wound
down the Office of Price Stabilization. The war itself ended, on paper,
that July: negotiators signed an armistice July 27 at Panmunjom, halting
the fighting roughly along the original border near the 38th parallel. No
formal peace treaty ever followed, and North and South Korea remain
technically at war. Consumer prices finished 1953 169.7% above their
1913 level. First-class postage held at 3 cents, and the
minimum wage stayed at 75 cents an hour.
Every 1953 amount converts to 1954 at the same ratio, 1.01: $1,000 becomes
$1,007, and $10,000 becomes $10,075.
Amount in 1953
Value in 1954
$1.00
$1.01
$5.00
$5.04
$10.00
$10.07
$20.00
$20.15
$50.00
$50.37
$100
$101
$500
$504
$1,000
$1,007
$5,000
$5,037
$10,000
$10,075
$100,000
$100,749
$1,000,000
$1,007,491
Inflation by spending category, 1953–1954
Between 1953 and 1954, medical care rose the most, up 2.9%, while transportation fell 1.5%, against 0.7% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1953
spending costs in 1954, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1953 →
All items (CPI-U)
0.75%
$101
Medical care
2.89%
$103
Apparel
0.00%
$100
Food
-0.35%
$99.65
Transportation
-1.51%
$98.49
Not shown because the BLS began these indexes after 1953: core (all items less food & energy) (1957–), energy (1957–), housing (1967–), recreation (1993–), education & communication (1993–).
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1953
$100 from 1953grew to $101 by 1954; each row
shows the CPI, that year's inflation rate, and the running value.
In 1954, prices rose 0.7% and $100 from 1953 had the buying
power of $101; the year's average CPI of 26.9 is the level
behind every 1954 figure on this page.
Consumer prices rose 0.7% in 1954, extending 1953’s 0.8%
slowdown even as the economy tipped into recession, an early example of
prices continuing to rise through a downturn rather than falling with it.
The National Bureau of Economic Research dates that recession from July
1953 to May 1954, as defense spending fell after the Korean War armistice
and the tighter monetary policy of the year before worked its way through
the economy. The Supreme Court reshaped a different part of American life
that spring: its unanimous May 17 ruling in Brown v. Board of Education
held that “separate but equal” public schools violated the Constitution,
overturning the legal basis for segregated education. Washington also
closed the book on a different fight that year. Following the televised
Army-McCarthy hearings that spring, the Senate voted 67 to 22 on December
2 to condemn Senator Joseph McCarthy’s conduct, ending his dominance of
American politics after four years of anti-communist investigations.
Consumer prices finished 1954 171.7% above their 1913
level, essentially flat with 1953 as the mild recession
held the cost of living in check. First-class postage held at 3 cents,
and the minimum wage stayed at 75 cents an hour.
MLA: “Inflation from 1953 to 1954: $100 is worth $101 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1953-to-1954/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1953 to 1954. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1953-to-1954/