$100 in 1953 is worth $899 in 2016,
because prices increased 798.9% over that period, an average of
3.55% a year.
$100 in 1953 has
the same buying power as
$899
in 2016
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
798.9%
Average inflation rate
3.55% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$899
Price difference ($100 base)
$799
CPI in 1953
26.7
CPI in 2016
240.007
Inflation in 1953
0.75%
Inflation in 2016
1.26%
$100 in 1953 → 2016
$899
$100 in 2016 → 1953
$11.12
What happened to prices between 1953 and 2016
Between 1953 and 2016, the Consumer Price Index went from 26.7 to 240.007.
Cumulatively, prices increased 798.9%, which works out to an average of
3.55% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1953 bought what
$0.11 buys in 2016: the 1953 dollar
lost 88.9% of its purchasing power over
these 63 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 2016 at the same ratio, 8.99: $1,000 becomes
$8,989, and $10,000 becomes $89,890.
Amount in 1953
Value in 2016
$1.00
$8.99
$5.00
$44.95
$10.00
$89.89
$20.00
$180
$50.00
$449
$100
$899
$500
$4,495
$1,000
$8,989
$5,000
$44,945
$10,000
$89,890
$100,000
$898,903
$1,000,000
$8,989,026
Inflation by spending category, 1953–2016
Between 1953 and 2016, medical care rose the most, up 2580.2%, while apparel rose the least, up 192.4%, against 798.9% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1953
spending costs in 2016, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1953 →
All items (CPI-U)
3.55%
$899
Medical care
5.36%
$2,680
Food
3.50%
$876
Transportation
3.22%
$735
Apparel
1.72%
$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 2016
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 1953–2016 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
2010–2016
1.61%
10.1%
$899
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1953
$100 from 1953 had already become $373 by
1983, on its way to $899 in 2016; 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: 2016
In 2016, prices rose 1.3% and $100 from 1953 had the buying
power of $899; the year's average CPI of 240.007 is the level
behind every 2016 figure on this page.
2016 opened with the cheapest oil in more than a decade and closed with a
change in political direction. Crude fell to about $26 a barrel in February,
and gasoline averaged $2.14 a gallon for the year, its lowest annual
average since 2004. Headline inflation was 1.3%, a modest rebound from 2015’s
0.1%, though prices excluding food and energy rose faster, driven by rents and
health care.
Median household income rose to $59,039, the second large gain in a row, and
the median new home sold for about $307,800. The federal minimum wage held at
$7.25, and a first-class stamp fell to 47 cents after a January rate cut, a
rare decrease.
Two votes changed the outlook. Britain’s June decision to leave the European
Union unsettled currency markets, and the U.S. election in November raised
expectations of tax cuts, deficits, and faster growth, sending long-term
interest rates higher. OPEC’s November output cut ended the oil slump, and the
Federal Reserve made its second rate increase in December, to 0.50–0.75%.
MLA: “Inflation from 1953 to 2016: $100 is worth $899 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1953-to-2016/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1953 to 2016. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1953-to-2016/