$100 in 1953 is worth $610 in 1998,
because prices increased 510.5% over that period, an average of
4.10% a year.
$100 in 1953 has
the same buying power as
$610
in 1998
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
510.5%
Average inflation rate
4.10% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$610
Price difference ($100 base)
$510
CPI in 1953
26.7
CPI in 1998
163
Inflation in 1953
0.75%
Inflation in 1998
1.56%
$100 in 1953 → 1998
$610
$100 in 1998 → 1953
$16.38
What happened to prices between 1953 and 1998
Between 1953 and 1998, the Consumer Price Index went from 26.7 to 163.
Cumulatively, prices increased 510.5%, which works out to an average of
4.10% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1953 bought what
$0.16 buys in 1998: the 1953 dollar
lost 83.6% of its purchasing power over
these 45 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 1998 at the same ratio, 6.10: $1,000 becomes
$6,105, and $10,000 becomes $61,049.
Amount in 1953
Value in 1998
$1.00
$6.10
$5.00
$30.52
$10.00
$61.05
$20.00
$122
$50.00
$305
$100
$610
$500
$3,052
$1,000
$6,105
$5,000
$30,524
$10,000
$61,049
$100,000
$610,487
$1,000,000
$6,104,869
Inflation by spending category, 1953–1998
Between 1953 and 1998, medical care rose the most, up 1299.4%, while apparel rose the least, up 208.6%, against 510.5% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1953
spending costs in 1998, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1953 →
All items (CPI-U)
4.10%
$610
Medical care
6.04%
$1,399
Food
3.93%
$568
Transportation
3.79%
$534
Apparel
2.54%
$309
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 1998
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 1953–1998 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
1990–1998
2.80%
24.7%
$610
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1953
$100 from 1953 had already become $201 by
1975, on its way to $610 in 1998; 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: 1998
In 1998, prices rose 1.6% and $100 from 1953 had the buying
power of $610; the year's average CPI of 163 is the level
behind every 1998 figure on this page.
The median household earned about $38,900 in 1998, gas averaged just $1.06 a gallon, its
cheapest of the decade, and a new home cost roughly $152,500. Inflation ran at 1.6% for the
year, the lowest of the 1990s, as a glut of crude oil, worsened by weak demand from Asia’s
slowdown, pushed prices below $11 a barrel by December and pulled pump prices down with them.
The calm at home came alongside real turmoil abroad: in August, Russia devalued the ruble and
defaulted on its domestic debt, rattling markets already unsettled by the Asian financial
crisis, and in September the hedge fund Long-Term Capital Management collapsed after its highly
leveraged bets went bad, prompting the Federal Reserve to organize a private-sector bailout by
more than a dozen banks to prevent a disorderly unwinding of its roughly $100 billion in
positions. The Fed also cut interest rates three times that fall, in September, October, and
November, an insurance policy against the global financial turmoil spreading to the U.S.
economy. Cheap oil and a well-timed set of rate cuts left 1998 as a year the U.S. economy
absorbed two foreign financial crises without much of a dent at home.
MLA: “Inflation from 1953 to 1998: $100 is worth $610 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1953-to-1998/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1953 to 1998. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1953-to-1998/