$100 in 1953 is worth $340 in 1981,
because prices increased 240.4% over that period, an average of
4.47% a year.
$100 in 1953 has
the same buying power as
$340
in 1981
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
240.4%
Average inflation rate
4.47% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$340
Price difference ($100 base)
$240
CPI in 1953
26.7
CPI in 1981
90.9
Inflation in 1953
0.75%
Inflation in 1981
10.32%
$100 in 1953 → 1981
$340
$100 in 1981 → 1953
$29.37
What happened to prices between 1953 and 1981
Between 1953 and 1981, the Consumer Price Index went from 26.7 to 90.9.
Cumulatively, prices increased 240.4%, which works out to an average of
4.47% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1953 bought what
$0.29 buys in 1981: the 1953 dollar
lost 70.6% of its purchasing power over
these 28 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 1981 at the same ratio, 3.40: $1,000 becomes
$3,404, and $10,000 becomes $34,045.
Amount in 1953
Value in 1981
$1.00
$3.40
$5.00
$17.02
$10.00
$34.04
$20.00
$68.09
$50.00
$170
$100
$340
$500
$1,702
$1,000
$3,404
$5,000
$17,022
$10,000
$34,045
$100,000
$340,449
$1,000,000
$3,404,494
Inflation by spending category, 1953–1981
Between 1953 and 1981, medical care rose the most, up 379.2%, while apparel rose the least, up 121.1%, against 240.4% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1953
spending costs in 1981, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1953 →
All items (CPI-U)
4.47%
$340
Medical care
5.76%
$479
Transportation
4.59%
$352
Food
4.36%
$331
Apparel
2.87%
$221
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 1981
Prices climbed fastest in the 1980s, averaging 10.32% a year, and slowest in the 1950s (1.48% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1953–1981 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
1970–1980
7.82%
112.4%
$309
1980–1981
10.32%
10.3%
$340
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1953
$100 from 1953 had already become $125 by
1967, on its way to $340 in 1981; each row shows the CPI, that
year's inflation rate, and the running value.
Within the span, inflation peaked at 13.5% in 1980, and prices fell 0.4% in 1955, the deepest deflation of the period.
In 1981, prices rose 10.3% and $100 from 1953 had the buying
power of $340; the year's average CPI of 90.9 is the level
behind every 1981 figure on this page.
1981 was the year the inflation fever finally broke, at an extraordinary price.
Consumer prices rose 10.3%, the second year of back-to-back double-digit
inflation and the last time the U.S. would see one. To end it, Paul Volcker’s
Federal Reserve drove its policy rate above 19% and let borrowing costs go
where they may: a 30-year mortgage cost more than 18% by autumn, car loans and
business credit froze, and homebuilders mailed the Fed two-by-fours in protest.
The squeeze tipped the economy into recession in July, the deep 1981–82
downturn that would push unemployment past 10%. But it worked. Inflation fell
by nearly half within a year and to under 4% by 1983, the disinflation that
defined the following two decades. Even the price of mailing a letter told the
year’s story: postage went up twice in eight months.
MLA: “Inflation from 1953 to 1981: $100 is worth $340 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1953-to-1981/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1953 to 1981. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1953-to-1981/