$100 in 1954 is worth $104 in 1957,
because prices increased 4.5% over that period, an average of
1.47% a year.
$100 in 1954 has
the same buying power as
$104
in 1957
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
4.5%
Average inflation rate
1.47% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$104
Price difference ($100 base)
$4.46
CPI in 1954
26.9
CPI in 1957
28.1
Inflation in 1954
0.75%
Inflation in 1957
3.31%
$100 in 1954 → 1957
$104
$100 in 1957 → 1954
$95.73
What happened to prices between 1954 and 1957
Between 1954 and 1957, the Consumer Price Index went from 26.9 to 28.1.
Cumulatively, prices increased 4.5%, which works out to an average of
1.47% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1954 bought what
$0.96 buys in 1957: the 1954 dollar
lost 4.3% of its purchasing power over
these 3 years.
Consumer prices rose 0.7% in 1954, extending 1953’s 0.8%
slowdown even as the economy tipped into recession, an early example of
prices continuing to rise through a downturn rather than falling with it.
The National Bureau of Economic Research dates that recession from July
1953 to May 1954, as defense spending fell after the Korean War armistice
and the tighter monetary policy of the year before worked its way through
the economy. The Supreme Court reshaped a different part of American life
that spring: its unanimous May 17 ruling in Brown v. Board of Education
held that “separate but equal” public schools violated the Constitution,
overturning the legal basis for segregated education. Washington also
closed the book on a different fight that year. Following the televised
Army-McCarthy hearings that spring, the Senate voted 67 to 22 on December
2 to condemn Senator Joseph McCarthy’s conduct, ending his dominance of
American politics after four years of anti-communist investigations.
Consumer prices finished 1954 171.7% above their 1913
level, essentially flat with 1953 as the mild recession
held the cost of living in check. First-class postage held at 3 cents,
and the minimum wage stayed at 75 cents an hour.
Every 1954 amount converts to 1957 at the same ratio, 1.04: $1,000 becomes
$1,045, and $10,000 becomes $10,446.
Amount in 1954
Value in 1957
$1.00
$1.04
$5.00
$5.22
$10.00
$10.45
$20.00
$20.89
$50.00
$52.23
$100
$104
$500
$522
$1,000
$1,045
$5,000
$5,223
$10,000
$10,446
$100,000
$104,461
$1,000,000
$1,044,610
Inflation by spending category, 1954–1957
Between 1954 and 1957, medical care rose the most, up 10.7%, while food rose the least, up 2.5%, against 4.5% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1954
spending costs in 1957, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1954 →
All items (CPI-U)
1.47%
$104
Medical care
3.44%
$111
Transportation
2.00%
$106
Apparel
1.07%
$103
Food
0.82%
$102
Not shown because the BLS began these indexes after 1954: core (all items less food & energy) (1957–), energy (1957–), housing (1967–), recreation (1993–), education & communication (1993–).
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1954
$100 from 1954 had already become $99.63 by
1955, on its way to $104 in 1957; each row shows the CPI, that
year's inflation rate, and the running value.
Within the span, inflation peaked at 3.3% in 1957, and prices fell 0.4% in 1955, the deepest deflation of the period.
In 1957, prices rose 3.3% and $100 from 1954 had the buying
power of $104; the year's average CPI of 28.1 is the level
behind every 1957 figure on this page.
Consumer prices rose 3.3% in 1957, up from 1956’s 1.5% and
the sharpest increase since the Korean War price surge of 1951. The jump
fed a growing debate among economists over “cost-push” inflation, prices
climbing from rising wages and material costs rather than excess demand,
a debate that would recur for the next quarter century. The Federal
Reserve tightened policy to fight it, and by August the tighter money
combined with falling business investment to tip the economy into a
recession, according to the National Bureau of Economic Research’s
dating. The Cold War took a technological turn that October, when the
Soviet Union launched Sputnik, the first artificial satellite, on the
4th, stunning the American public and setting off both the Space Race and
a surge in federal science and defense spending the following year. Civil
rights reached a crisis that September in Little Rock, Arkansas: after
Governor Orval Faubus used the National Guard to block nine Black
students from Central High School, Eisenhower federalized the Guard and
sent the 101st Airborne Division to enforce the Supreme Court’s
desegregation order. Consumer prices finished 1957 183.8% above their
1913 level. First-class postage held at 3 cents, and the
minimum wage stood at $1.00 an hour.
MLA: “Inflation from 1954 to 1957: $100 is worth $104 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1954-to-1957/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1954 to 1957. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1954-to-1957/