$100 in 1954 is worth $749 in 2006,
because prices increased 649.4% over that period, an average of
3.95% a year.
$100 in 1954 has
the same buying power as
$749
in 2006
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
649.4%
Average inflation rate
3.95% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$749
Price difference ($100 base)
$649
CPI in 1954
26.9
CPI in 2006
201.6
Inflation in 1954
0.75%
Inflation in 2006
3.23%
$100 in 1954 → 2006
$749
$100 in 2006 → 1954
$13.34
What happened to prices between 1954 and 2006
Between 1954 and 2006, the Consumer Price Index went from 26.9 to 201.6.
Cumulatively, prices increased 649.4%, which works out to an average of
3.95% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1954 bought what
$0.13 buys in 2006: the 1954 dollar
lost 86.7% of its purchasing power over
these 52 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 2006 at the same ratio, 7.49: $1,000 becomes
$7,494, and $10,000 becomes $74,944.
Amount in 1954
Value in 2006
$1.00
$7.49
$5.00
$37.47
$10.00
$74.94
$20.00
$150
$50.00
$375
$100
$749
$500
$3,747
$1,000
$7,494
$5,000
$37,472
$10,000
$74,944
$100,000
$749,442
$1,000,000
$7,494,424
Inflation by spending category, 1954–2006
Between 1954 and 2006, medical care rose the most, up 1788.8%, while apparel rose the least, up 177.3%, against 649.4% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1954
spending costs in 2006, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1954 →
All items (CPI-U)
3.95%
$749
Medical care
5.81%
$1,889
Transportation
3.79%
$693
Food
3.79%
$692
Apparel
1.98%
$277
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 2006
Prices climbed fastest in the 1970s, averaging 7.82% a year, and slowest in the 1950s (1.61% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1954–2006 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
1980–1990
4.72%
58.6%
$486
1990–2000
2.80%
31.8%
$640
2000–2006
2.66%
17.1%
$749
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1954
$100 from 1954 had already become $306 by
1980, on its way to $749 in 2006; 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 2 years; the calculator above covers any pair of years.
The destination year: 2006
In 2006, prices rose 3.2% and $100 from 1954 had the buying
power of $749; the year's average CPI of 201.6 is the level
behind every 2006 figure on this page.
Inflation was 3.2% in 2006 and gasoline averaged $2.59 a gallon, up 29 cents from 2005. The
median household earned about $48,200 and the median new home cost $246,500, a gain of about
2% after a 13% jump in 2004 and 9% in 2005. National home prices, by the S&P/Case-Shiller
index, peaked in mid-2006. Ben Bernanke replaced Alan Greenspan as Federal Reserve chair on
February 1, and on June 29 the Fed raised its policy rate to 5.25%, the last of 17 straight
quarter-point increases. It held there for over a year. A first-class stamp rose to 39 cents in
January, and the federal minimum wage was $5.15 for the ninth full year in a row.
MLA: “Inflation from 1954 to 2006: $100 is worth $749 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1954-to-2006/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1954 to 2006. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1954-to-2006/