$100 in 1953 is worth $166 in 1973,
because prices increased 66.3% over that period, an average of
2.58% a year.
$100 in 1953 has
the same buying power as
$166
in 1973
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
66.3%
Average inflation rate
2.58% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$166
Price difference ($100 base)
$66.29
CPI in 1953
26.7
CPI in 1973
44.4
Inflation in 1953
0.75%
Inflation in 1973
6.22%
$100 in 1953 → 1973
$166
$100 in 1973 → 1953
$60.14
What happened to prices between 1953 and 1973
Between 1953 and 1973, the Consumer Price Index went from 26.7 to 44.4.
Cumulatively, prices increased 66.3%, which works out to an average of
2.58% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1953 bought what
$0.60 buys in 1973: the 1953 dollar
lost 39.9% of its purchasing power over
these 20 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 1973 at the same ratio, 1.66: $1,000 becomes
$1,663, and $10,000 becomes $16,629.
Amount in 1953
Value in 1973
$1.00
$1.66
$5.00
$8.31
$10.00
$16.63
$20.00
$33.26
$50.00
$83.15
$100
$166
$500
$831
$1,000
$1,663
$5,000
$8,315
$10,000
$16,629
$100,000
$166,292
$1,000,000
$1,662,921
Inflation by spending category, 1953–1973
Between 1953 and 1973, medical care rose the most, up 124.3%, while apparel rose the least, up 49.9%, against 66.3% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1953
spending costs in 1973, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1953 →
All items (CPI-U)
2.58%
$166
Medical care
4.12%
$224
Food
2.70%
$170
Transportation
2.23%
$155
Apparel
2.04%
$150
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 1973
Prices climbed fastest in the 1970s, averaging 4.60% a year, and slowest in the 1950s (1.48% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1953–1973 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
1970–1973
4.60%
14.4%
$166
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1953
$100 from 1953 had already become $115 by
1963, on its way to $166 in 1973; each row shows the CPI, that
year's inflation rate, and the running value.
Within the span, inflation peaked at 6.2% in 1973, and prices fell 0.4% in 1955, the deepest deflation of the period.
In 1973, prices rose 6.2% and $100 from 1953 had the buying
power of $166; the year's average CPI of 44.4 is the level
behind every 1973 figure on this page.
Consumer prices rose 6.2% in 1973, nearly double 1972’s 3.2%,
as Nixon’s wage and price controls were phased out through the year and
pressure the controls had been holding back broke loose. The bigger shock
arrived that October, when Arab oil-producing states embargoed exports to the
United States and other supporters of Israel in the Yom Kippur War. Crude
oil, which had traded around $3 a barrel, approached $12 by early 1974, and
gas lines became a fixture outside filling stations nationwide. Earlier in
the year, the Paris Peace Accords, signed that January 27, ended direct
American combat in Vietnam and set a 60-day deadline for withdrawing
remaining U.S. troops, even as fighting between North and South Vietnam went
on. Financial markets read the year correctly as a turning point: the Dow
Jones Industrial Average peaked at 1,051.70 on January 11, a level it would
not reach again until 1980, before the oil shock and rising interest rates
dragged it into a two-year bear market. A median household earned $10,512 in
1973, a new home sold for a median $32,500, and gas averaged 38.5 cents a
gallon, still under half of what the embargo’s effects would bring the
following year. Consumer prices stood 348.5% above their
1913 level by year’s end, with the decade’s worst inflation
still ahead.
MLA: “Inflation from 1953 to 1973: $100 is worth $166 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1953-to-1973/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1953 to 1973. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1953-to-1973/