$100 in 1953 is worth $817 in 2010,
because prices increased 716.7% over that period, an average of
3.75% a year.
$100 in 1953 has
the same buying power as
$817
in 2010
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
716.7%
Average inflation rate
3.75% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$817
Price difference ($100 base)
$717
CPI in 1953
26.7
CPI in 2010
218.056
Inflation in 1953
0.75%
Inflation in 2010
1.64%
$100 in 1953 → 2010
$817
$100 in 2010 → 1953
$12.24
What happened to prices between 1953 and 2010
Between 1953 and 2010, the Consumer Price Index went from 26.7 to 218.056.
Cumulatively, prices increased 716.7%, which works out to an average of
3.75% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1953 bought what
$0.12 buys in 2010: the 1953 dollar
lost 87.8% of its purchasing power over
these 57 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 2010 at the same ratio, 8.17: $1,000 becomes
$8,167, and $10,000 becomes $81,669.
Amount in 1953
Value in 2010
$1.00
$8.17
$5.00
$40.83
$10.00
$81.67
$20.00
$163
$50.00
$408
$100
$817
$500
$4,083
$1,000
$8,167
$5,000
$40,834
$10,000
$81,669
$100,000
$816,689
$1,000,000
$8,166,891
Inflation by spending category, 1953–2010
Between 1953 and 2010, medical care rose the most, up 2145.3%, while apparel rose the least, up 177.3%, against 716.7% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1953
spending costs in 2010, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1953 →
All items (CPI-U)
3.75%
$817
Medical care
5.61%
$2,245
Food
3.66%
$776
Transportation
3.55%
$730
Apparel
1.81%
$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 2010
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 1953–2010 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
2000–2010
2.39%
26.6%
$817
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1953
$100 from 1953 had already become $340 by
1981, on its way to $817 in 2010; 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: 2010
In 2010, prices rose 1.6% and $100 from 1953 had the buying
power of $817; the year's average CPI of 218.056 is the level
behind every 2010 figure on this page.
2010 was a year of recovery without much price pressure. The CPI rose 1.6%, a
return to growth after 2009’s deflation, with gasoline averaging $2.78 a
gallon as energy prices climbed back from their recession lows. Housing costs
barely moved: millions of foreclosed and vacant homes kept rents soft, and the
median new home sold for about $221,800. The federal minimum wage stayed at
$7.25, the level set in July 2009, and a first-class stamp cost 44 cents.
The Federal Reserve was more worried about too little inflation than too
much. Its policy rate sat at 0–0.25%, and in November it announced a further
$600 billion of Treasury purchases to hold down long-term borrowing costs.
Congress passed the Dodd-Frank Act in July to tighten financial regulation,
while a 110 billion euro rescue of Greece in May showed that the crisis had
moved from American mortgages to European government debt. For anyone
comparing dollars across the decade, 2010 is a useful baseline: prices were
still close to their 2008 levels, and the years ahead brought a slow, steady
climb.
MLA: “Inflation from 1953 to 2010: $100 is worth $817 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1953-to-2010/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1953 to 2010. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1953-to-2010/