$100 in 1953 is worth $860 in 2012,
because prices increased 759.9% over that period, an average of
3.71% a year.
$100 in 1953 has
the same buying power as
$860
in 2012
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
759.9%
Average inflation rate
3.71% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$860
Price difference ($100 base)
$760
CPI in 1953
26.7
CPI in 2012
229.594
Inflation in 1953
0.75%
Inflation in 2012
2.07%
$100 in 1953 → 2012
$860
$100 in 2012 → 1953
$11.63
What happened to prices between 1953 and 2012
Between 1953 and 2012, the Consumer Price Index went from 26.7 to 229.594.
Cumulatively, prices increased 759.9%, which works out to an average of
3.71% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1953 bought what
$0.12 buys in 2012: the 1953 dollar
lost 88.4% of its purchasing power over
these 59 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 2012 at the same ratio, 8.60: $1,000 becomes
$8,599, and $10,000 becomes $85,990.
Amount in 1953
Value in 2012
$1.00
$8.60
$5.00
$43.00
$10.00
$85.99
$20.00
$172
$50.00
$430
$100
$860
$500
$4,300
$1,000
$8,599
$5,000
$42,995
$10,000
$85,990
$100,000
$859,903
$1,000,000
$8,599,026
Inflation by spending category, 1953–2012
Between 1953 and 2012, medical care rose the most, up 2298.4%, while apparel rose the least, up 193.0%, against 759.9% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1953
spending costs in 2012, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1953 →
All items (CPI-U)
3.71%
$860
Medical care
5.53%
$2,398
Food
3.64%
$826
Transportation
3.63%
$820
Apparel
1.84%
$293
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 2012
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 1953–2012 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
2010–2012
2.61%
5.3%
$860
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1953
$100 from 1953 had already become $373 by
1983, on its way to $860 in 2012; 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: 2012
In 2012, prices rose 2.1% and $100 from 1953 had the buying
power of $860; the year's average CPI of 229.594 is the level
behind every 2012 figure on this page.
2012 put a number on what the Federal Reserve was aiming for. In January the
Fed announced a 2% inflation target, and consumer prices rose 2.1% for the
year, almost exactly on it. Gasoline averaged $3.62 a gallon, another annual
high, but the pace of increase cooled from 2011’s 3.2% as food and core prices
grew more slowly.
The bigger story was housing and jobs. Home prices began to recover, and the
median new home sold for about $245,200, up from $227,200 the year before.
Median household income was $51,017. The federal minimum wage held at $7.25,
and a first-class stamp rose to 45 cents.
In September the Fed started a third round of asset purchases, this one with
no fixed end date, aimed at lowering unemployment. Overseas, the European
Central Bank’s July pledge to do “whatever it takes” to save the euro calmed
bond markets. A summer drought across the Midwest drove corn and soybean
prices to records, a shock that reached grocery shelves only partly, because
most of what shoppers pay for food covers processing and transport rather than
raw crops.
MLA: “Inflation from 1953 to 2012: $100 is worth $860 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1953-to-2012/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1953 to 2012. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1953-to-2012/