$100 in 1953 is worth $918 in 2017,
because prices increased 818.1% over that period, an average of
3.52% a year.
$100 in 1953 has
the same buying power as
$918
in 2017
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
818.1%
Average inflation rate
3.52% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$918
Price difference ($100 base)
$818
CPI in 1953
26.7
CPI in 2017
245.12
Inflation in 1953
0.75%
Inflation in 2017
2.13%
$100 in 1953 → 2017
$918
$100 in 2017 → 1953
$10.89
What happened to prices between 1953 and 2017
Between 1953 and 2017, the Consumer Price Index went from 26.7 to 245.12.
Cumulatively, prices increased 818.1%, which works out to an average of
3.52% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1953 bought what
$0.11 buys in 2017: the 1953 dollar
lost 89.1% of its purchasing power over
these 64 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 2017 at the same ratio, 9.18: $1,000 becomes
$9,181, and $10,000 becomes $91,805.
Amount in 1953
Value in 2017
$1.00
$9.18
$5.00
$45.90
$10.00
$91.81
$20.00
$184
$50.00
$459
$100
$918
$500
$4,590
$1,000
$9,181
$5,000
$45,903
$10,000
$91,805
$100,000
$918,052
$1,000,000
$9,180,524
Inflation by spending category, 1953–2017
Between 1953 and 2017, medical care rose the most, up 2647.5%, while apparel rose the least, up 191.4%, against 818.1% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1953
spending costs in 2017, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1953 →
All items (CPI-U)
3.52%
$918
Medical care
5.31%
$2,748
Food
3.46%
$884
Transportation
3.22%
$761
Apparel
1.69%
$291
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 2017
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 1953–2017 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
2010–2017
1.69%
12.4%
$918
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1953
$100 from 1953 had already become $373 by
1983, on its way to $918 in 2017; 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: 2017
In 2017, prices rose 2.1% and $100 from 1953 had the buying
power of $918; the year's average CPI of 245.12 is the level
behind every 2017 figure on this page.
2017 pushed consumer prices back above the Federal Reserve’s 2% target. The
CPI rose 2.1%, the first reading over 2% in five years, helped by a rebound
in energy after OPEC’s output cuts and by a storm-related spike at the pump:
Hurricane Harvey shut a large part of Gulf Coast refining in late August.
Gasoline averaged $2.42 a gallon, up from $2.14 in 2016.
Household incomes kept rising. The median household income reached $61,372,
and the median new home sold for about $322,100. The federal minimum wage
stayed at $7.25, its eighth year at that level, and a first-class stamp rose
to 49 cents.
The Fed raised rates three times, to 1.25–1.50%, and in October began
letting its bond holdings shrink. Congress passed the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act
in December, lowering the corporate rate to 21%. Even with unemployment near
4%, core inflation stayed under 2%, a puzzle that shaped Fed debates for the
next two years.
MLA: “Inflation from 1953 to 2017: $100 is worth $918 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1953-to-2017/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1953 to 2017. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1953-to-2017/