$100 in 1953 is worth $755 in 2006,
because prices increased 655.1% over that period, an average of
3.89% a year.
$100 in 1953 has
the same buying power as
$755
in 2006
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
655.1%
Average inflation rate
3.89% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$755
Price difference ($100 base)
$655
CPI in 1953
26.7
CPI in 2006
201.6
Inflation in 1953
0.75%
Inflation in 2006
3.23%
$100 in 1953 → 2006
$755
$100 in 2006 → 1953
$13.24
What happened to prices between 1953 and 2006
Between 1953 and 2006, the Consumer Price Index went from 26.7 to 201.6.
Cumulatively, prices increased 655.1%, which works out to an average of
3.89% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1953 bought what
$0.13 buys in 2006: the 1953 dollar
lost 86.8% of its purchasing power over
these 53 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 2006 at the same ratio, 7.55: $1,000 becomes
$7,551, and $10,000 becomes $75,506.
Amount in 1953
Value in 2006
$1.00
$7.55
$5.00
$37.75
$10.00
$75.51
$20.00
$151
$50.00
$378
$100
$755
$500
$3,775
$1,000
$7,551
$5,000
$37,753
$10,000
$75,506
$100,000
$755,056
$1,000,000
$7,550,562
Inflation by spending category, 1953–2006
Between 1953 and 2006, medical care rose the most, up 1843.4%, while apparel rose the least, up 177.3%, against 655.1% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1953
spending costs in 2006, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1953 →
All items (CPI-U)
3.89%
$755
Medical care
5.76%
$1,943
Food
3.71%
$690
Transportation
3.69%
$683
Apparel
1.94%
$277
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 2006
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 1953–2006 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
2000–2006
2.66%
17.1%
$755
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1953
$100 from 1953 had already become $272 by
1979, on its way to $755 in 2006; 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: 2006
In 2006, prices rose 3.2% and $100 from 1953 had the buying
power of $755; the year's average CPI of 201.6 is the level
behind every 2006 figure on this page.
Inflation was 3.2% in 2006 and gasoline averaged $2.59 a gallon, up 29 cents from 2005. The
median household earned about $48,200 and the median new home cost $246,500, a gain of about
2% after a 13% jump in 2004 and 9% in 2005. National home prices, by the S&P/Case-Shiller
index, peaked in mid-2006. Ben Bernanke replaced Alan Greenspan as Federal Reserve chair on
February 1, and on June 29 the Fed raised its policy rate to 5.25%, the last of 17 straight
quarter-point increases. It held there for over a year. A first-class stamp rose to 39 cents in
January, and the federal minimum wage was $5.15 for the ninth full year in a row.
MLA: “Inflation from 1953 to 2006: $100 is worth $755 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1953-to-2006/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1953 to 2006. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1953-to-2006/