$100 in 1953 is worth $201 in 1975,
because prices increased 101.5% over that period, an average of
3.24% a year.
$100 in 1953 has
the same buying power as
$201
in 1975
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
101.5%
Average inflation rate
3.24% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$201
Price difference ($100 base)
$101
CPI in 1953
26.7
CPI in 1975
53.8
Inflation in 1953
0.75%
Inflation in 1975
9.13%
$100 in 1953 → 1975
$201
$100 in 1975 → 1953
$49.63
What happened to prices between 1953 and 1975
Between 1953 and 1975, the Consumer Price Index went from 26.7 to 53.8.
Cumulatively, prices increased 101.5%, which works out to an average of
3.24% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1953 bought what
$0.50 buys in 1975: the 1953 dollar
lost 50.4% of its purchasing power over
these 22 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 1975 at the same ratio, 2.01: $1,000 becomes
$2,015, and $10,000 becomes $20,150.
Amount in 1953
Value in 1975
$1.00
$2.01
$5.00
$10.07
$10.00
$20.15
$20.00
$40.30
$50.00
$101
$100
$201
$500
$1,007
$1,000
$2,015
$5,000
$10,075
$10,000
$20,150
$100,000
$201,498
$1,000,000
$2,014,981
Inflation by spending category, 1953–1975
Between 1953 and 1975, medical care rose the most, up 174.6%, while apparel rose the least, up 68.2%, against 101.5% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1953
spending costs in 1975, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1953 →
All items (CPI-U)
3.24%
$201
Medical care
4.70%
$275
Food
3.46%
$211
Transportation
2.94%
$189
Apparel
2.39%
$168
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 1975
Prices climbed fastest in the 1970s, averaging 6.76% a year, and slowest in the 1950s (1.48% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1953–1975 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
1970–1975
6.76%
38.7%
$201
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1953
$100 from 1953 had already become $116 by
1964, on its way to $201 in 1975; 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 1975, prices rose 9.1% and $100 from 1953 had the buying
power of $201; the year's average CPI of 53.8 is the level
behind every 1975 figure on this page.
Consumer prices rose 9.1% in 1975, easing slightly from 1974’s
11.0% but still running far above anything the country had experienced before
the decade began. The recession that started in November 1973, the deepest
since the Great Depression, bottomed out that March, yet unemployment kept
climbing through the year and touched 9%, a combination of high inflation and
high joblessness that had no precedent in the postwar data. Vietnam ended
that April 30, when North Vietnamese forces captured Saigon and the last
Americans were evacuated by helicopter from the U.S. embassy roof. Fiscal
strain hit closer to home too: New York City, facing bankruptcy after years
of borrowing to paper over budget gaps, asked Washington for help that
October. President Ford’s initial refusal produced the Daily News headline
“Ford to City: Drop Dead,” though he ultimately signed a federal loan package
that December. Amid the gloom, Bill Gates and Paul Allen founded Microsoft
that April in Albuquerque, New Mexico, to sell a version of the BASIC
programming language for the Altair 8800, one of the first personal
computers sold to hobbyists. A median household earned $11,800 in 1975, a new
home sold for a median $39,300, and first-class postage held at 10 cents,
unchanged since 1974’s increase. Consumer prices stood 443.4%
above their 1913 level, with the decade barely past its
midpoint.
MLA: “Inflation from 1953 to 1975: $100 is worth $201 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1953-to-1975/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1953 to 1975. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1953-to-1975/