$100 in 1953 is worth $185 in 1974,
because prices increased 84.6% over that period, an average of
2.96% a year.
$100 in 1953 has
the same buying power as
$185
in 1974
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
84.6%
Average inflation rate
2.96% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$185
Price difference ($100 base)
$84.64
CPI in 1953
26.7
CPI in 1974
49.3
Inflation in 1953
0.75%
Inflation in 1974
11.04%
$100 in 1953 → 1974
$185
$100 in 1974 → 1953
$54.16
What happened to prices between 1953 and 1974
Between 1953 and 1974, the Consumer Price Index went from 26.7 to 49.3.
Cumulatively, prices increased 84.6%, which works out to an average of
2.96% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1953 bought what
$0.54 buys in 1974: the 1953 dollar
lost 45.8% of its purchasing power over
these 21 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 1974 at the same ratio, 1.85: $1,000 becomes
$1,846, and $10,000 becomes $18,464.
Amount in 1953
Value in 1974
$1.00
$1.85
$5.00
$9.23
$10.00
$18.46
$20.00
$36.93
$50.00
$92.32
$100
$185
$500
$923
$1,000
$1,846
$5,000
$9,232
$10,000
$18,464
$100,000
$184,644
$1,000,000
$1,846,442
Inflation by spending category, 1953–1974
Between 1953 and 1974, medical care rose the most, up 145.1%, while apparel rose the least, up 61.0%, against 84.6% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1953
spending costs in 1974, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1953 →
All items (CPI-U)
2.96%
$185
Medical care
4.36%
$245
Food
3.22%
$195
Transportation
2.64%
$173
Apparel
2.29%
$161
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 1974
Prices climbed fastest in the 1970s, averaging 6.17% a year, and slowest in the 1950s (1.48% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1953–1974 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
1970–1974
6.17%
27.1%
$185
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1953
$100 from 1953 had already become $115 by
1963, on its way to $185 in 1974; each row shows the CPI, that
year's inflation rate, and the running value.
Within the span, inflation peaked at 11.0% in 1974, and prices fell 0.4% in 1955, the deepest deflation of the period.
In 1974, prices rose 11.0% and $100 from 1953 had the buying
power of $185; the year's average CPI of 49.3 is the level
behind every 1974 figure on this page.
1974 was the year the postwar economy broke its old rules. Consumer prices
rose 11.0%, the fastest annual increase since 1947, as the Arab oil embargo
that ran from October 1973 to March 1974 roughly quadrupled the price of
crude oil worldwide. Gasoline, which had averaged 38.5 cents a gallon in
1973, jumped to 53.2 cents, and shortages forced many states into odd-even
rationing at the pump. Nixon’s wage and price controls, in place in some form
since 1971, expired at the end of April, removing the last brake on prices
just as the oil shock hit. Nixon himself resigned in August over Watergate,
and Gerald Ford’s response to inflation, a voluntary “Whip Inflation Now”
campaign built around lapel buttons, became a symbol of how little
conventional politics could do against the problem. Prices kept climbing even
as the economy weakened: a recession that started in November 1973 dragged
on, the Dow fell to a bear-market bottom of 577.60 in December, and
unemployment was already rising toward the 9% it would reach in 1975. The
combination of rising prices and a shrinking economy gave the decade its
name: stagflation.
MLA: “Inflation from 1953 to 1974: $100 is worth $185 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1953-to-1974/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1953 to 1974. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1953-to-1974/