$100 in 1954 is worth $359 in 1982,
because prices increased 258.7% over that period, an average of
4.67% a year.
$100 in 1954 has
the same buying power as
$359
in 1982
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
258.7%
Average inflation rate
4.67% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$359
Price difference ($100 base)
$259
CPI in 1954
26.9
CPI in 1982
96.5
Inflation in 1954
0.75%
Inflation in 1982
6.16%
$100 in 1954 → 1982
$359
$100 in 1982 → 1954
$27.88
What happened to prices between 1954 and 1982
Between 1954 and 1982, the Consumer Price Index went from 26.9 to 96.5.
Cumulatively, prices increased 258.7%, which works out to an average of
4.67% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1954 bought what
$0.28 buys in 1982: the 1954 dollar
lost 72.1% of its purchasing power over
these 28 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 1982 at the same ratio, 3.59: $1,000 becomes
$3,587, and $10,000 becomes $35,874.
Amount in 1954
Value in 1982
$1.00
$3.59
$5.00
$17.94
$10.00
$35.87
$20.00
$71.75
$50.00
$179
$100
$359
$500
$1,794
$1,000
$3,587
$5,000
$17,937
$10,000
$35,874
$100,000
$358,736
$1,000,000
$3,587,361
Inflation by spending category, 1954–1982
Between 1954 and 1982, medical care rose the most, up 419.7%, while apparel rose the least, up 126.9%, against 258.7% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1954
spending costs in 1982, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1954 →
All items (CPI-U)
4.67%
$359
Medical care
6.06%
$520
Transportation
4.80%
$372
Food
4.53%
$345
Apparel
2.97%
$227
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 1982
Prices climbed fastest in the 1980s, averaging 8.22% a year, and slowest in the 1950s (1.61% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1954–1982 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
1970–1980
7.82%
112.4%
$306
1980–1982
8.22%
17.1%
$359
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1954
$100 from 1954 had already become $129 by
1968, on its way to $359 in 1982; 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.
In 1982, prices rose 6.2% and $100 from 1954 had the buying
power of $359; the year's average CPI of 96.5 is the level
behind every 1982 figure on this page.
1982 was the hard bottom of the disinflation Paul Volcker had set in motion.
Consumer prices rose just 6.2% for the year, roughly half of 1981’s rate and a
fraction of the 13.5% peak from two years earlier. The price fell because
demand had been crushed: the recession that began in July 1981 did not
officially end until November 1982, and unemployment kept climbing even as
the economy technically began to recover, reaching 10.8% in November and
December, the highest rate since the Great Depression. Manufacturing and
construction, especially the auto and housing industries starved of credit by
double-digit interest rates, bore the worst of it. Abroad, Mexico’s August
announcement that it could not service its foreign debt opened a Latin
American debt crisis that spread across the region and forced the Federal
Reserve and IMF into emergency lending. The stress on the financial system
pushed Volcker to start easing interest rates that October, stepping back
from the strict money-supply targets he had followed since 1979. Markets read
the shift correctly: the Dow Jones Industrial Average bottomed at 776.92 in
mid-August, and the rally that followed became the opening leg of the 1980s
bull market. By year’s end, the trade-off Volcker had bet on was becoming
visible: much lower inflation, at the cost of the worst unemployment in 40
years.
MLA: “Inflation from 1954 to 1982: $100 is worth $359 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1954-to-1982/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1954 to 1982. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1954-to-1982/