$100 in 1953 is worth $689 in 2003,
because prices increased 589.1% over that period, an average of
3.94% a year.
$100 in 1953 has
the same buying power as
$689
in 2003
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
589.1%
Average inflation rate
3.94% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$689
Price difference ($100 base)
$589
CPI in 1953
26.7
CPI in 2003
184
Inflation in 1953
0.75%
Inflation in 2003
2.28%
$100 in 1953 → 2003
$689
$100 in 2003 → 1953
$14.51
What happened to prices between 1953 and 2003
Between 1953 and 2003, the Consumer Price Index went from 26.7 to 184.
Cumulatively, prices increased 589.1%, which works out to an average of
3.94% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1953 bought what
$0.15 buys in 2003: the 1953 dollar
lost 85.5% of its purchasing power over
these 50 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 2003 at the same ratio, 6.89: $1,000 becomes
$6,891, and $10,000 becomes $68,914.
Amount in 1953
Value in 2003
$1.00
$6.89
$5.00
$34.46
$10.00
$68.91
$20.00
$138
$50.00
$345
$100
$689
$500
$3,446
$1,000
$6,891
$5,000
$34,457
$10,000
$68,914
$100,000
$689,139
$1,000,000
$6,891,386
Inflation by spending category, 1953–2003
Between 1953 and 2003, medical care rose the most, up 1617.3%, while apparel rose the least, up 180.5%, against 589.1% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1953
spending costs in 2003, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1953 →
All items (CPI-U)
3.94%
$689
Medical care
5.85%
$1,717
Food
3.77%
$636
Transportation
3.63%
$595
Apparel
2.08%
$281
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 2003
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 1953–2003 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
1990–2000
2.80%
31.8%
$645
2000–2003
2.23%
6.9%
$689
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1953
$100 from 1953 had already become $227 by
1977, on its way to $689 in 2003; 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: 2003
In 2003, prices rose 2.3% and $100 from 1953 had the buying
power of $689; the year's average CPI of 184 is the level
behind every 2003 figure on this page.
Inflation was 2.3% in 2003, up from 1.6% in 2002, as gasoline climbed from $1.36 to $1.59 a
gallon around the March invasion of Iraq. Even so, the Federal Reserve spent the year worried
about prices being too low: on June 25 it cut its policy rate to 1.0%, the lowest since 1958,
and said the risk of deflation, though small, deserved a response. The median household earned
about $43,300 and a new home cost roughly $195,000. Congress passed a second round of tax cuts
in May, and the economy grew faster in the second half of the year than at any point since
1999. Hiring lagged the recovery, and unemployment peaked at 6.3% in June. A first-class stamp
stayed at 37 cents and the federal minimum wage at $5.15.
MLA: “Inflation from 1953 to 2003: $100 is worth $689 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1953-to-2003/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1953 to 2003. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1953-to-2003/