$100 in 1953 is worth $443 in 1988,
because prices increased 343.1% over that period, an average of
4.34% a year.
$100 in 1953 has
the same buying power as
$443
in 1988
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
343.1%
Average inflation rate
4.34% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$443
Price difference ($100 base)
$343
CPI in 1953
26.7
CPI in 1988
118.3
Inflation in 1953
0.75%
Inflation in 1988
4.14%
$100 in 1953 → 1988
$443
$100 in 1988 → 1953
$22.57
What happened to prices between 1953 and 1988
Between 1953 and 1988, the Consumer Price Index went from 26.7 to 118.3.
Cumulatively, prices increased 343.1%, which works out to an average of
4.34% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1953 bought what
$0.23 buys in 1988: the 1953 dollar
lost 77.4% of its purchasing power over
these 35 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 1988 at the same ratio, 4.43: $1,000 becomes
$4,431, and $10,000 becomes $44,307.
Amount in 1953
Value in 1988
$1.00
$4.43
$5.00
$22.15
$10.00
$44.31
$20.00
$88.61
$50.00
$222
$100
$443
$500
$2,215
$1,000
$4,431
$5,000
$22,154
$10,000
$44,307
$100,000
$443,071
$1,000,000
$4,430,712
Inflation by spending category, 1953–1988
Between 1953 and 1988, medical care rose the most, up 701.2%, while apparel rose the least, up 167.7%, against 343.1% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1953
spending costs in 1988, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1953 →
All items (CPI-U)
4.34%
$443
Medical care
6.13%
$801
Food
4.17%
$418
Transportation
4.12%
$410
Apparel
2.85%
$268
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 1988
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 1953–1988 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
1980–1988
4.62%
43.6%
$443
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1953
$100 from 1953 had already become $152 by
1971, on its way to $443 in 1988; 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.
Long periods are sampled every 2 years; the calculator above covers any pair of years.
The destination year: 1988
In 1988, prices rose 4.1% and $100 from 1953 had the buying
power of $443; the year's average CPI of 118.3 is the level
behind every 1988 figure on this page.
By 1988, the economic expansion that began in the ashes of the 1981-82
recession was in its sixth year, and the Federal Reserve was watching for
signs it had run too long. Inflation rose to 4.1%, up from 3.6% the year
before, while unemployment fell to its lowest level since 1974. Alan
Greenspan’s Fed responded by raising the federal funds rate through the
year, from about 6.5% to 8.5%, trying to cool demand before prices
accelerated the way they had in the 1970s. Households still felt the
difference between this expansion and the last one: gas held near 90 cents
a gallon, almost exactly its 1987 price, and median household income rose
to roughly $27,200. The one price that moved was postage, which rose from
22 to 25 cents in April, the fourth increase of the decade but a far
gentler pace than the string of increases in the late 1970s and early
1980s. In November, Vice President George H.W. Bush won the presidency on
the strength of the expansion, promising in his nomination speech to hold
the line on taxes. Both the boom and that pledge would run into trouble
within two years, as the Fed’s rate increases helped tip the economy toward
the 1990-91 recession.
MLA: “Inflation from 1953 to 1988: $100 is worth $443 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1953-to-1988/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1953 to 1988. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1953-to-1988/