$100 in 1953 is worth $571 in 1995,
because prices increased 470.8% over that period, an average of
4.23% a year.
$100 in 1953 has
the same buying power as
$571
in 1995
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
470.8%
Average inflation rate
4.23% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$571
Price difference ($100 base)
$471
CPI in 1953
26.7
CPI in 1995
152.4
Inflation in 1953
0.75%
Inflation in 1995
2.83%
$100 in 1953 → 1995
$571
$100 in 1995 → 1953
$17.52
What happened to prices between 1953 and 1995
Between 1953 and 1995, the Consumer Price Index went from 26.7 to 152.4.
Cumulatively, prices increased 470.8%, which works out to an average of
4.23% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1953 bought what
$0.18 buys in 1995: the 1953 dollar
lost 82.5% of its purchasing power over
these 42 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 1995 at the same ratio, 5.71: $1,000 becomes
$5,708, and $10,000 becomes $57,079.
Amount in 1953
Value in 1995
$1.00
$5.71
$5.00
$28.54
$10.00
$57.08
$20.00
$114
$50.00
$285
$100
$571
$500
$2,854
$1,000
$5,708
$5,000
$28,539
$10,000
$57,079
$100,000
$570,787
$1,000,000
$5,707,865
Inflation by spending category, 1953–1995
Between 1953 and 1995, medical care rose the most, up 1174.6%, while apparel rose the least, up 206.3%, against 470.8% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1953
spending costs in 1995, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1953 →
All items (CPI-U)
4.23%
$571
Medical care
6.25%
$1,275
Transportation
4.03%
$525
Food
4.02%
$524
Apparel
2.70%
$306
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 1995
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 1953–1995 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
1990–1995
3.12%
16.6%
$571
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1953
$100 from 1953 had already become $166 by
1973, on its way to $571 in 1995; 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: 1995
In 1995, prices rose 2.8% and $100 from 1953 had the buying
power of $571; the year's average CPI of 152.4 is the level
behind every 1995 figure on this page.
In 1995, gas averaged $1.15 a gallon, a new home cost roughly $133,900, and the median household
earned about $34,100. Inflation ran at 2.8% for the year, little changed from 1994, as the
Federal Reserve shifted from raising rates to cutting them. Having lifted its policy rate six
times the year before, the Fed judged by July that the economy had cooled enough on its own, and
trimmed rates instead, an outcome economists would later point to as a rare soft landing. The
year opened with a currency crisis: Mexico’s peso lost roughly half its value against the dollar
in a matter of weeks, and the U.S. Treasury and the IMF assembled a $50 billion rescue package,
controversial in Congress, to stabilize it and keep the crisis from spreading to other emerging
markets. Closer to home, a budget standoff between President Clinton and the Republican Congress
shut down federal agencies twice, first for five days in November and then for 21 days spanning
December into January 1996, the longest shutdown up to that point. The Postal Service raised the
cost of a first-class stamp to 32 cents in January. Low, steady inflation was about the only calm
part of 1995’s economic story.
MLA: “Inflation from 1953 to 1995: $100 is worth $571 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1953-to-1995/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1953 to 1995. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1953-to-1995/