$100 in 1953 is worth $940 in 2018,
because prices increased 840.5% over that period, an average of
3.51% a year.
$100 in 1953 has
the same buying power as
$940
in 2018
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
840.5%
Average inflation rate
3.51% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$940
Price difference ($100 base)
$840
CPI in 1953
26.7
CPI in 2018
251.107
Inflation in 1953
0.75%
Inflation in 2018
2.44%
$100 in 1953 → 2018
$940
$100 in 2018 → 1953
$10.63
What happened to prices between 1953 and 2018
Between 1953 and 2018, the Consumer Price Index went from 26.7 to 251.107.
Cumulatively, prices increased 840.5%, which works out to an average of
3.51% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1953 bought what
$0.11 buys in 2018: the 1953 dollar
lost 89.4% of its purchasing power over
these 65 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 2018 at the same ratio, 9.40: $1,000 becomes
$9,405, and $10,000 becomes $94,048.
Amount in 1953
Value in 2018
$1.00
$9.40
$5.00
$47.02
$10.00
$94.05
$20.00
$188
$50.00
$470
$100
$940
$500
$4,702
$1,000
$9,405
$5,000
$47,024
$10,000
$94,048
$100,000
$940,476
$1,000,000
$9,404,757
Inflation by spending category, 1953–2018
Between 1953 and 2018, medical care rose the most, up 2701.8%, while apparel rose the least, up 191.5%, against 840.5% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1953
spending costs in 2018, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1953 →
All items (CPI-U)
3.51%
$940
Medical care
5.26%
$2,802
Food
3.43%
$896
Transportation
3.24%
$795
Apparel
1.66%
$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 2018
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 1953–2018 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
2010–2018
1.78%
15.2%
$940
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1953
$100 from 1953 had already become $373 by
1983, on its way to $940 in 2018; 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: 2018
In 2018, prices rose 2.4% and $100 from 1953 had the buying
power of $940; the year's average CPI of 251.107 is the level
behind every 2018 figure on this page.
2018 was the peak of the late-2010s expansion. Consumer prices rose 2.4%,
the fastest since 2011, with gasoline averaging $2.72 a gallon after a summer
high. Unemployment fell to 3.7% in September, the lowest since 1969, and median
household income reached $63,179. The median new home sold for about $331,800,
and a first-class stamp cost 50 cents. The federal minimum wage was still $7.25.
Trade policy became a price factor for the first time in decades. New tariffs
on steel, aluminum, and a growing list of Chinese goods raised costs for
manufacturers and some consumer products, and retaliation cut into exports of
soybeans and other farm goods.
The Federal Reserve, led from February by Jerome Powell, raised rates four
times to 2.25–2.50%. A stock-market drop of nearly 20% in the fourth quarter
led the Fed to signal a pause in early 2019. Oil fell from over $75 a barrel in
October to below $50 by December, which pulled headline inflation lower going
into the next year.
MLA: “Inflation from 1953 to 2018: $100 is worth $940 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1953-to-2018/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1953 to 2018. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1953-to-2018/