$100 in 1953 is worth $958 in 2019,
because prices increased 857.5% over that period, an average of
3.48% a year.
$100 in 1953 has
the same buying power as
$958
in 2019
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
857.5%
Average inflation rate
3.48% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$958
Price difference ($100 base)
$858
CPI in 1953
26.7
CPI in 2019
255.657
Inflation in 1953
0.75%
Inflation in 2019
1.81%
$100 in 1953 → 2019
$958
$100 in 2019 → 1953
$10.44
What happened to prices between 1953 and 2019
Between 1953 and 2019, the Consumer Price Index went from 26.7 to 255.657.
Cumulatively, prices increased 857.5%, which works out to an average of
3.48% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1953 bought what
$0.10 buys in 2019: the 1953 dollar
lost 89.6% of its purchasing power over
these 66 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 2019 at the same ratio, 9.58: $1,000 becomes
$9,575, and $10,000 becomes $95,752.
Amount in 1953
Value in 2019
$1.00
$9.58
$5.00
$47.88
$10.00
$95.75
$20.00
$192
$50.00
$479
$100
$958
$500
$4,788
$1,000
$9,575
$5,000
$47,876
$10,000
$95,752
$100,000
$957,517
$1,000,000
$9,575,169
Inflation by spending category, 1953–2019
Between 1953 and 2019, medical care rose the most, up 2781.0%, while apparel rose the least, up 187.8%, against 857.5% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1953
spending costs in 2019, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1953 →
All items (CPI-U)
3.48%
$958
Medical care
5.22%
$2,881
Food
3.41%
$913
Transportation
3.19%
$793
Apparel
1.61%
$288
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 2019
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 1953–2019 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
2010–2019
1.78%
17.2%
$958
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1953
$100 from 1953 had already become $443 by
1988, on its way to $958 in 2019; 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: 2019
In 2019, prices rose 1.8% and $100 from 1953 had the buying
power of $958; the year's average CPI of 255.657 is the level
behind every 2019 figure on this page.
2019 was the last ordinary year before COVID-19. Consumer prices rose 1.8%,
slightly under the Federal Reserve’s 2% target, with gasoline averaging
$2.60 a gallon. Median household income jumped to $68,703, the highest on
record up to that point, and the median new home sold for about $328,000. A
first-class stamp rose to 55 cents.
The Fed reversed course. After four increases in 2018, it cut rates three
times, to 1.50–1.75%, citing slower global growth, trade tensions, and low
inflation. In July the expansion that began in June 2009 became the longest in
U.S. records, and in August the yield curve briefly inverted, a signal
investors read as a recession warning.
For workers at the bottom of the pay scale, 2019 marked a milestone of a
different kind. The federal minimum wage stayed at $7.25 and reached its tenth
year without an increase, the longest gap since the wage was first set. Because
prices had climbed about 19% since it was last raised in 2009, its buying power
was lower than at any point in that span.
MLA: “Inflation from 1953 to 2019: $100 is worth $958 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1953-to-2019/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1953 to 2019. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1953-to-2019/