$100 in 1953 is worth $601 in 1997,
because prices increased 501.1% over that period, an average of
4.16% a year.
$100 in 1953 has
the same buying power as
$601
in 1997
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
501.1%
Average inflation rate
4.16% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$601
Price difference ($100 base)
$501
CPI in 1953
26.7
CPI in 1997
160.5
Inflation in 1953
0.75%
Inflation in 1997
2.29%
$100 in 1953 → 1997
$601
$100 in 1997 → 1953
$16.64
What happened to prices between 1953 and 1997
Between 1953 and 1997, the Consumer Price Index went from 26.7 to 160.5.
Cumulatively, prices increased 501.1%, which works out to an average of
4.16% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1953 bought what
$0.17 buys in 1997: the 1953 dollar
lost 83.4% of its purchasing power over
these 44 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 1997 at the same ratio, 6.01: $1,000 becomes
$6,011, and $10,000 becomes $60,112.
Amount in 1953
Value in 1997
$1.00
$6.01
$5.00
$30.06
$10.00
$60.11
$20.00
$120
$50.00
$301
$100
$601
$500
$3,006
$1,000
$6,011
$5,000
$30,056
$10,000
$60,112
$100,000
$601,124
$1,000,000
$6,011,236
Inflation by spending category, 1953–1997
Between 1953 and 1997, medical care rose the most, up 1256.1%, while apparel rose the least, up 208.4%, against 501.1% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1953
spending costs in 1997, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1953 →
All items (CPI-U)
4.16%
$601
Medical care
6.10%
$1,356
Food
3.98%
$556
Transportation
3.93%
$545
Apparel
2.59%
$308
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 1997
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 1953–1997 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
1990–1997
2.98%
22.8%
$601
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1953
$100 from 1953 had already become $201 by
1975, on its way to $601 in 1997; 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: 1997
In 1997, prices rose 2.3% and $100 from 1953 had the buying
power of $601; the year's average CPI of 160.5 is the level
behind every 1997 figure on this page.
The median household earned about $37,000 in 1997, gas averaged $1.23 a gallon, and a new home
cost roughly $146,000. Inflation ran at 2.3% for the year, its lowest reading since the
mid-1980s, as a strong dollar and falling import prices helped keep costs in check at home even
as trouble built abroad. In July, Thailand devalued the baht, and the currency collapse that
followed spread within months to Indonesia, South Korea, and other Southeast Asian economies,
forcing IMF bailouts and years of recession across the region, though the crisis had little
immediate effect on U.S. prices. At home, Washington had a calmer year: in August, President
Clinton and Congress agreed on the Balanced Budget Act and the Taxpayer Relief Act, which cut
capital gains tax rates, created the Roth IRA, and set the federal budget on a path to its first
surplus in nearly three decades. In September, the federal minimum wage completed a two-step
rise to $5.15 an hour, where it would stay for a decade. Low inflation, a firming budget picture,
and a crisis unfolding an ocean away made 1997 a year the U.S. economy looked stronger than much
of the rest of the world’s.
MLA: “Inflation from 1953 to 1997: $100 is worth $601 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1953-to-1997/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1953 to 1997. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1953-to-1997/