$100 in 1953 is worth $888 in 2015,
because prices increased 787.7% over that period, an average of
3.58% a year.
$100 in 1953 has
the same buying power as
$888
in 2015
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
787.7%
Average inflation rate
3.58% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$888
Price difference ($100 base)
$788
CPI in 1953
26.7
CPI in 2015
237.017
Inflation in 1953
0.75%
Inflation in 2015
0.12%
$100 in 1953 → 2015
$888
$100 in 2015 → 1953
$11.27
What happened to prices between 1953 and 2015
Between 1953 and 2015, the Consumer Price Index went from 26.7 to 237.017.
Cumulatively, prices increased 787.7%, which works out to an average of
3.58% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1953 bought what
$0.11 buys in 2015: the 1953 dollar
lost 88.7% of its purchasing power over
these 62 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 2015 at the same ratio, 8.88: $1,000 becomes
$8,877, and $10,000 becomes $88,770.
Amount in 1953
Value in 2015
$1.00
$8.88
$5.00
$44.39
$10.00
$88.77
$20.00
$178
$50.00
$444
$100
$888
$500
$4,439
$1,000
$8,877
$5,000
$44,385
$10,000
$88,770
$100,000
$887,704
$1,000,000
$8,877,041
Inflation by spending category, 1953–2015
Between 1953 and 2015, medical care rose the most, up 2482.4%, while apparel rose the least, up 192.1%, against 787.7% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1953
spending costs in 2015, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1953 →
All items (CPI-U)
3.58%
$888
Medical care
5.38%
$2,582
Food
3.56%
$874
Transportation
3.31%
$751
Apparel
1.74%
$292
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 2015
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 1953–2015 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
2010–2015
1.68%
8.7%
$888
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1953
$100 from 1953 had already become $373 by
1983, on its way to $888 in 2015; 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 5 years; the calculator above covers any pair of years.
The destination year: 2015
In 2015, prices rose 0.1% and $100 from 1953 had the buying
power of $888; the year's average CPI of 237.017 is the level
behind every 2015 figure on this page.
2015 was almost a year with no inflation at all. Consumer prices rose 0.1%,
the smallest increase since the 2009 decline, because energy prices kept
falling. Gasoline averaged $2.45 a gallon, down from $3.37 in 2014, and a
strong dollar made imported goods cheaper. The picture was different outside
food and energy: core prices rose about 1.8% as rents and medical costs
climbed.
Incomes finally showed real progress. Median household income reached $56,516,
a large jump from $53,657, and the median new home sold for about $296,400. The
federal minimum wage stayed at $7.25, and a first-class stamp stayed at 49
cents.
The Federal Reserve chose December to end its zero-rate policy, raising the
target range to 0.25–0.50% for the first time since 2006. It moved even
though headline inflation was far under 2%, arguing that the drag from
energy was temporary. Earlier, a currency shift in China in August had shaken
global markets and pushed oil below $40 a barrel. Prices in 2015 ended
the year barely above their 2014 level.
MLA: “Inflation from 1953 to 2015: $100 is worth $888 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1953-to-2015/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1953 to 2015. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1953-to-2015/