$100 in 1954 is worth $165 in 1973,
because prices increased 65.1% over that period, an average of
2.67% a year.
$100 in 1954 has
the same buying power as
$165
in 1973
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
65.1%
Average inflation rate
2.67% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$165
Price difference ($100 base)
$65.06
CPI in 1954
26.9
CPI in 1973
44.4
Inflation in 1954
0.75%
Inflation in 1973
6.22%
$100 in 1954 → 1973
$165
$100 in 1973 → 1954
$60.59
What happened to prices between 1954 and 1973
Between 1954 and 1973, the Consumer Price Index went from 26.9 to 44.4.
Cumulatively, prices increased 65.1%, which works out to an average of
2.67% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1954 bought what
$0.61 buys in 1973: the 1954 dollar
lost 39.4% of its purchasing power over
these 19 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 1973 at the same ratio, 1.65: $1,000 becomes
$1,651, and $10,000 becomes $16,506.
Amount in 1954
Value in 1973
$1.00
$1.65
$5.00
$8.25
$10.00
$16.51
$20.00
$33.01
$50.00
$82.53
$100
$165
$500
$825
$1,000
$1,651
$5,000
$8,253
$10,000
$16,506
$100,000
$165,056
$1,000,000
$1,650,558
Inflation by spending category, 1954–1973
Between 1954 and 1973, medical care rose the most, up 118.0%, while apparel rose the least, up 49.9%, against 65.1% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1954
spending costs in 1973, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1954 →
All items (CPI-U)
2.67%
$165
Medical care
4.19%
$218
Food
2.86%
$171
Transportation
2.43%
$158
Apparel
2.15%
$150
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–).
Decade by decade: 1954 to 1973
Prices climbed fastest in the 1970s, averaging 4.60% a year, and slowest in the 1950s (1.61% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1954–1973 change:
Years
Avg. yearly inflation
Price change
$100 from 1954, at end
1954–1960
1.61%
10.0%
$110
1960–1970
2.74%
31.1%
$144
1970–1973
4.60%
14.4%
$165
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1954
$100 from 1954 had already become $114 by
1963, on its way to $165 in 1973; each row shows the CPI, that
year's inflation rate, and the running value.
Within the span, inflation peaked at 6.2% in 1973, and prices fell 0.4% in 1955, the deepest deflation of the period.
In 1973, prices rose 6.2% and $100 from 1954 had the buying
power of $165; the year's average CPI of 44.4 is the level
behind every 1973 figure on this page.
Consumer prices rose 6.2% in 1973, nearly double 1972’s 3.2%,
as Nixon’s wage and price controls were phased out through the year and
pressure the controls had been holding back broke loose. The bigger shock
arrived that October, when Arab oil-producing states embargoed exports to the
United States and other supporters of Israel in the Yom Kippur War. Crude
oil, which had traded around $3 a barrel, approached $12 by early 1974, and
gas lines became a fixture outside filling stations nationwide. Earlier in
the year, the Paris Peace Accords, signed that January 27, ended direct
American combat in Vietnam and set a 60-day deadline for withdrawing
remaining U.S. troops, even as fighting between North and South Vietnam went
on. Financial markets read the year correctly as a turning point: the Dow
Jones Industrial Average peaked at 1,051.70 on January 11, a level it would
not reach again until 1980, before the oil shock and rising interest rates
dragged it into a two-year bear market. A median household earned $10,512 in
1973, a new home sold for a median $32,500, and gas averaged 38.5 cents a
gallon, still under half of what the embargo’s effects would bring the
following year. Consumer prices stood 348.5% above their
1913 level by year’s end, with the decade’s worst inflation
still ahead.
MLA: “Inflation from 1954 to 1973: $100 is worth $165 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1954-to-1973/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1954 to 1973. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1954-to-1973/