$100 in 1953 is worth $777 in 2007,
because prices increased 676.6% over that period, an average of
3.87% a year.
$100 in 1953 has
the same buying power as
$777
in 2007
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
676.6%
Average inflation rate
3.87% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$777
Price difference ($100 base)
$677
CPI in 1953
26.7
CPI in 2007
207.342
Inflation in 1953
0.75%
Inflation in 2007
2.85%
$100 in 1953 → 2007
$777
$100 in 2007 → 1953
$12.88
What happened to prices between 1953 and 2007
Between 1953 and 2007, the Consumer Price Index went from 26.7 to 207.342.
Cumulatively, prices increased 676.6%, which works out to an average of
3.87% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1953 bought what
$0.13 buys in 2007: the 1953 dollar
lost 87.1% of its purchasing power over
these 54 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 2007 at the same ratio, 7.77: $1,000 becomes
$7,766, and $10,000 becomes $77,656.
Amount in 1953
Value in 2007
$1.00
$7.77
$5.00
$38.83
$10.00
$77.66
$20.00
$155
$50.00
$388
$100
$777
$500
$3,883
$1,000
$7,766
$5,000
$38,828
$10,000
$77,656
$100,000
$776,562
$1,000,000
$7,765,618
Inflation by spending category, 1953–2007
Between 1953 and 2007, medical care rose the most, up 1929.2%, while apparel rose the least, up 176.1%, against 676.6% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1953
spending costs in 2007, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1953 →
All items (CPI-U)
3.87%
$777
Medical care
5.73%
$2,029
Food
3.72%
$717
Transportation
3.66%
$697
Apparel
1.90%
$276
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 2007
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 1953–2007 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
2000–2007
2.69%
20.4%
$777
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1953
$100 from 1953 had already become $272 by
1979, on its way to $777 in 2007; 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: 2007
In 2007, prices rose 2.8% and $100 from 1953 had the buying
power of $777; the year's average CPI of 207.342 is the level
behind every 2007 figure on this page.
Inflation was 2.8% in 2007, with gasoline averaging $2.80 a gallon, but the year is better
known for what began underneath prices. In August, French bank BNP Paribas froze funds tied to
U.S. subprime mortgages, and credit between banks tightened. The Federal Reserve responded with
a half-point cut on September 18, its first in four years, and took the policy rate from 5.25% to
4.25% by December. The economy peaked that month, by the National Bureau of Economic Research’s
dating, and the Great Recession followed. The median household earned about $50,200, and the
median new home cost $247,900. Congress ended the decade-long freeze on the federal minimum wage
in May, with the first of three steps to $5.85 in July. A first-class stamp cost 41 cents.
MLA: “Inflation from 1953 to 2007: $100 is worth $777 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1953-to-2007/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1953 to 2007. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1953-to-2007/