$100 in 1953 is worth $152 in 1971,
because prices increased 51.7% over that period, an average of
2.34% a year.
$100 in 1953 has
the same buying power as
$152
in 1971
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
51.7%
Average inflation rate
2.34% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$152
Price difference ($100 base)
$51.69
CPI in 1953
26.7
CPI in 1971
40.5
Inflation in 1953
0.75%
Inflation in 1971
4.38%
$100 in 1953 → 1971
$152
$100 in 1971 → 1953
$65.93
What happened to prices between 1953 and 1971
Between 1953 and 1971, the Consumer Price Index went from 26.7 to 40.5.
Cumulatively, prices increased 51.7%, which works out to an average of
2.34% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1953 bought what
$0.66 buys in 1971: the 1953 dollar
lost 34.1% of its purchasing power over
these 18 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 1971 at the same ratio, 1.52: $1,000 becomes
$1,517, and $10,000 becomes $15,169.
Amount in 1953
Value in 1971
$1.00
$1.52
$5.00
$7.58
$10.00
$15.17
$20.00
$30.34
$50.00
$75.84
$100
$152
$500
$758
$1,000
$1,517
$5,000
$7,584
$10,000
$15,169
$100,000
$151,685
$1,000,000
$1,516,854
Inflation by spending category, 1953–1971
Between 1953 and 1971, medical care rose the most, up 108.7%, while apparel rose the least, up 41.8%, against 51.7% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1953
spending costs in 1971, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1953 →
All items (CPI-U)
2.34%
$152
Medical care
4.17%
$209
Transportation
2.24%
$149
Food
2.00%
$143
Apparel
1.96%
$142
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–).
Decade by decade: 1953 to 1971
Prices climbed fastest in the 1970s, averaging 4.38% a year, and slowest in the 1950s (1.48% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1953–1971 change:
Years
Avg. yearly inflation
Price change
$100 from 1953, at end
1953–1960
1.48%
10.9%
$111
1960–1970
2.74%
31.1%
$145
1970–1971
4.38%
4.4%
$152
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1953
$100 from 1953 had already become $113 by
1962, on its way to $152 in 1971; each row shows the CPI, that
year's inflation rate, and the running value.
Within the span, inflation peaked at 5.7% in 1970, and prices fell 0.4% in 1955, the deepest deflation of the period.
In 1971, prices rose 4.4% and $100 from 1953 had the buying
power of $152; the year's average CPI of 40.5 is the level
behind every 1971 figure on this page.
Consumer prices rose 4.4% in 1971, down from 1970’s 5.7% as
the recession that started in December 1969 finally cooled demand. The bigger
economic story came that August 15, when President Nixon closed the “gold
window” that let foreign governments exchange dollars for gold, ending the
Bretton Woods system that had anchored the dollar since World War II. The
same address announced a 90-day freeze on wages and prices, the first
peacetime controls the country had seen, an attempt to break inflationary
expectations without the slower grind of tighter money. The “Nixon Shock,” as
it came to be known, let the dollar float against other currencies for the
first time and set the stage for a wage-and-price-control regime that would
run in various forms into 1973. Politically, the country lowered its voting
age that year: the 26th Amendment, ratified July 1, extended the vote to
18-year-olds, capping a campaign built on the argument that men old enough to
be drafted to Vietnam were old enough to vote for the people who sent them.
The Postal Service, independent since 1970’s reorganization, raised
first-class postage from 6 to 8 cents that May. A median household earned
$9,028 in 1971, up from $8,734 the year before, while gas held near 36 cents
a gallon and a new home sold for a median $25,200. Consumer prices stood
309.1% above their 1913 level by year’s end, still years away
from the double-digit inflation the controls were meant to prevent.
MLA: “Inflation from 1953 to 1971: $100 is worth $152 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1953-to-1971/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1953 to 1971. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1953-to-1971/