$100 in 1954 is worth $200 in 1975,
because prices increased 100.0% over that period, an average of
3.36% a year.
$100 in 1954 has
the same buying power as
$200
in 1975
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
100.0%
Average inflation rate
3.36% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$200
Price difference ($100 base)
$100
CPI in 1954
26.9
CPI in 1975
53.8
Inflation in 1954
0.75%
Inflation in 1975
9.13%
$100 in 1954 → 1975
$200
$100 in 1975 → 1954
$50.00
What happened to prices between 1954 and 1975
Between 1954 and 1975, the Consumer Price Index went from 26.9 to 53.8.
Cumulatively, prices increased 100.0%, which works out to an average of
3.36% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1954 bought what
$0.50 buys in 1975: the 1954 dollar
lost 50.0% of its purchasing power over
these 21 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 1975 at the same ratio, 2.00: $1,000 becomes
$2,000, and $10,000 becomes $20,000.
Amount in 1954
Value in 1975
$1.00
$2.00
$5.00
$10.00
$10.00
$20.00
$20.00
$40.00
$50.00
$100
$100
$200
$500
$1,000
$1,000
$2,000
$5,000
$10,000
$10,000
$20,000
$100,000
$200,000
$1,000,000
$2,000,000
Inflation by spending category, 1954–1975
Between 1954 and 1975, medical care rose the most, up 166.9%, while apparel rose the least, up 68.2%, against 100.0% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1954
spending costs in 1975, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1954 →
All items (CPI-U)
3.36%
$200
Medical care
4.78%
$267
Food
3.64%
$212
Transportation
3.15%
$192
Apparel
2.51%
$168
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 1975
Prices climbed fastest in the 1970s, averaging 6.76% a year, and slowest in the 1950s (1.61% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1954–1975 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
1970–1975
6.76%
38.7%
$200
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1954
$100 from 1954 had already become $115 by
1964, on its way to $200 in 1975; each row shows the CPI, that
year's inflation rate, and the running value.
Within the span, inflation peaked at 11.0% in 1974, and prices fell 0.4% in 1955, the deepest deflation of the period.
In 1975, prices rose 9.1% and $100 from 1954 had the buying
power of $200; the year's average CPI of 53.8 is the level
behind every 1975 figure on this page.
Consumer prices rose 9.1% in 1975, easing slightly from 1974’s
11.0% but still running far above anything the country had experienced before
the decade began. The recession that started in November 1973, the deepest
since the Great Depression, bottomed out that March, yet unemployment kept
climbing through the year and touched 9%, a combination of high inflation and
high joblessness that had no precedent in the postwar data. Vietnam ended
that April 30, when North Vietnamese forces captured Saigon and the last
Americans were evacuated by helicopter from the U.S. embassy roof. Fiscal
strain hit closer to home too: New York City, facing bankruptcy after years
of borrowing to paper over budget gaps, asked Washington for help that
October. President Ford’s initial refusal produced the Daily News headline
“Ford to City: Drop Dead,” though he ultimately signed a federal loan package
that December. Amid the gloom, Bill Gates and Paul Allen founded Microsoft
that April in Albuquerque, New Mexico, to sell a version of the BASIC
programming language for the Altair 8800, one of the first personal
computers sold to hobbyists. A median household earned $11,800 in 1975, a new
home sold for a median $39,300, and first-class postage held at 10 cents,
unchanged since 1974’s increase. Consumer prices stood 443.4%
above their 1913 level, with the decade barely past its
midpoint.
MLA: “Inflation from 1954 to 1975: $100 is worth $200 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1954-to-1975/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1954 to 1975. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1954-to-1975/