$100 in 1953 is worth $373 in 1983,
because prices increased 273.0% over that period, an average of
4.49% a year.
$100 in 1953 has
the same buying power as
$373
in 1983
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
273.0%
Average inflation rate
4.49% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$373
Price difference ($100 base)
$273
CPI in 1953
26.7
CPI in 1983
99.6
Inflation in 1953
0.75%
Inflation in 1983
3.21%
$100 in 1953 → 1983
$373
$100 in 1983 → 1953
$26.81
What happened to prices between 1953 and 1983
Between 1953 and 1983, the Consumer Price Index went from 26.7 to 99.6.
Cumulatively, prices increased 273.0%, which works out to an average of
4.49% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1953 bought what
$0.27 buys in 1983: the 1953 dollar
lost 73.2% of its purchasing power over
these 30 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 1983 at the same ratio, 3.73: $1,000 becomes
$3,730, and $10,000 becomes $37,303.
Amount in 1953
Value in 1983
$1.00
$3.73
$5.00
$18.65
$10.00
$37.30
$20.00
$74.61
$50.00
$187
$100
$373
$500
$1,865
$1,000
$3,730
$5,000
$18,652
$10,000
$37,303
$100,000
$373,034
$1,000,000
$3,730,337
Inflation by spending category, 1953–1983
Between 1953 and 1983, medical care rose the most, up 481.5%, while apparel rose the least, up 132.5%, against 273.0% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1953
spending costs in 1983, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1953 →
All items (CPI-U)
4.49%
$373
Medical care
6.04%
$582
Transportation
4.50%
$375
Food
4.28%
$351
Apparel
2.85%
$232
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 1983
Prices climbed fastest in the 1970s, averaging 7.82% a year, and slowest in the 1950s (1.48% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1953–1983 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
1980–1983
6.52%
20.9%
$373
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1953
$100 from 1953 had already become $130 by
1968, on its way to $373 in 1983; 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 1983, prices rose 3.2% and $100 from 1953 had the buying
power of $373; the year's average CPI of 99.6 is the level
behind every 1983 figure on this page.
1983 confirmed that the Volcker disinflation was not a one-year fluke.
Consumer prices rose 3.2% for the year, nearly identical to 1982’s pace and a
fraction of the double-digit rates of 1980 and 1981. With inflation tamed and
interest rates coming down, the economy roared back from the 1981-82
recession: real GDP grew 4.6%, the strongest calendar-year growth since the
1950s, and unemployment fell from its 10.8% peak to 8.3% by December. Housing
and auto sales, both starved of credit during the recession, led the
rebound. In April, Congress and President Reagan enacted the Social Security
Amendments of 1983, a bipartisan rescue of a system projected to run out of
money within months. The law gradually raised the full retirement age from
65 to 67, began taxing benefits for higher-income retirees, and delayed that
year’s cost-of-living adjustment by six months. For a program whose benefits
had been indexed to the CPI since 1975, the amendments were the first major
sign that inflation-proofing Social Security carried a cost Congress could
not simply legislate away. By year’s end, gas averaged $1.16 a gallon and
mailing a letter still cost 20 cents, prices that had barely moved since
1981, a sharp break from the constant increases of the previous decade.
MLA: “Inflation from 1953 to 1983: $100 is worth $373 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1953-to-1983/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1953 to 1983. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1953-to-1983/