$100 in 1953 is worth $490 in 1990,
because prices increased 389.5% over that period, an average of
4.39% a year.
$100 in 1953 has
the same buying power as
$490
in 1990
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
389.5%
Average inflation rate
4.39% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$490
Price difference ($100 base)
$390
CPI in 1953
26.7
CPI in 1990
130.7
Inflation in 1953
0.75%
Inflation in 1990
5.40%
$100 in 1953 → 1990
$490
$100 in 1990 → 1953
$20.43
What happened to prices between 1953 and 1990
Between 1953 and 1990, the Consumer Price Index went from 26.7 to 130.7.
Cumulatively, prices increased 389.5%, which works out to an average of
4.39% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1953 bought what
$0.20 buys in 1990: the 1953 dollar
lost 79.6% of its purchasing power over
these 37 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 1990 at the same ratio, 4.90: $1,000 becomes
$4,895, and $10,000 becomes $48,951.
Amount in 1953
Value in 1990
$1.00
$4.90
$5.00
$24.48
$10.00
$48.95
$20.00
$97.90
$50.00
$245
$100
$490
$500
$2,448
$1,000
$4,895
$5,000
$24,476
$10,000
$48,951
$100,000
$489,513
$1,000,000
$4,895,131
Inflation by spending category, 1953–1990
Between 1953 and 1990, medical care rose the most, up 841.0%, while apparel rose the least, up 187.9%, against 389.5% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1953
spending costs in 1990, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1953 →
All items (CPI-U)
4.39%
$490
Medical care
6.25%
$941
Food
4.26%
$468
Transportation
4.18%
$455
Apparel
2.90%
$288
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 1990
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 1953–1990 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
1980–1990
4.72%
58.6%
$490
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1953
$100 from 1953 had already become $152 by
1971, on its way to $490 in 1990; 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: 1990
In 1990, prices rose 5.4% and $100 from 1953 had the buying
power of $490; the year's average CPI of 130.7 is the level
behind every 1990 figure on this page.
In 1990, the median U.S. household earned about $29,900, gas averaged $1.15 a
gallon, and mailing a letter cost a quarter. Inflation ran hot at 5.4% for the
year, its highest rate since 1982, pushed up by an oil shock after Iraq’s
invasion of Kuwait, and the economy tipped into recession that summer. It was
the last gasp of elevated inflation before the long calm of the 1990s.
MLA: “Inflation from 1953 to 1990: $100 is worth $490 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1953-to-1990/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1953 to 1990. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1953-to-1990/