$100 in 1953 is worth $361 in 1982,
because prices increased 261.4% over that period, an average of
4.53% a year.
$100 in 1953 has
the same buying power as
$361
in 1982
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
261.4%
Average inflation rate
4.53% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$361
Price difference ($100 base)
$261
CPI in 1953
26.7
CPI in 1982
96.5
Inflation in 1953
0.75%
Inflation in 1982
6.16%
$100 in 1953 → 1982
$361
$100 in 1982 → 1953
$27.67
What happened to prices between 1953 and 1982
Between 1953 and 1982, the Consumer Price Index went from 26.7 to 96.5.
Cumulatively, prices increased 261.4%, which works out to an average of
4.53% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1953 bought what
$0.28 buys in 1982: the 1953 dollar
lost 72.3% of its purchasing power over
these 29 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 1982 at the same ratio, 3.61: $1,000 becomes
$3,614, and $10,000 becomes $36,142.
Amount in 1953
Value in 1982
$1.00
$3.61
$5.00
$18.07
$10.00
$36.14
$20.00
$72.28
$50.00
$181
$100
$361
$500
$1,807
$1,000
$3,614
$5,000
$18,071
$10,000
$36,142
$100,000
$361,423
$1,000,000
$3,614,232
Inflation by spending category, 1953–1982
Between 1953 and 1982, medical care rose the most, up 434.7%, while apparel rose the least, up 126.9%, against 261.4% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1953
spending costs in 1982, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1953 →
All items (CPI-U)
4.53%
$361
Medical care
5.95%
$535
Transportation
4.58%
$366
Food
4.35%
$344
Apparel
2.87%
$227
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 1982
Prices climbed fastest in the 1980s, averaging 8.22% a year, and slowest in the 1950s (1.48% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1953–1982 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
1980–1982
8.22%
17.1%
$361
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1953
$100 from 1953 had already become $125 by
1967, on its way to $361 in 1982; 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 1982, prices rose 6.2% and $100 from 1953 had the buying
power of $361; the year's average CPI of 96.5 is the level
behind every 1982 figure on this page.
1982 was the hard bottom of the disinflation Paul Volcker had set in motion.
Consumer prices rose just 6.2% for the year, roughly half of 1981’s rate and a
fraction of the 13.5% peak from two years earlier. The price fell because
demand had been crushed: the recession that began in July 1981 did not
officially end until November 1982, and unemployment kept climbing even as
the economy technically began to recover, reaching 10.8% in November and
December, the highest rate since the Great Depression. Manufacturing and
construction, especially the auto and housing industries starved of credit by
double-digit interest rates, bore the worst of it. Abroad, Mexico’s August
announcement that it could not service its foreign debt opened a Latin
American debt crisis that spread across the region and forced the Federal
Reserve and IMF into emergency lending. The stress on the financial system
pushed Volcker to start easing interest rates that October, stepping back
from the strict money-supply targets he had followed since 1979. Markets read
the shift correctly: the Dow Jones Industrial Average bottomed at 776.92 in
mid-August, and the rally that followed became the opening leg of the 1980s
bull market. By year’s end, the trade-off Volcker had bet on was becoming
visible: much lower inflation, at the cost of the worst unemployment in 40
years.
MLA: “Inflation from 1953 to 1982: $100 is worth $361 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1953-to-1982/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1953 to 1982. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1953-to-1982/