$100 in 1954 is worth $836 in 2011,
because prices increased 736.2% over that period, an average of
3.80% a year.
$100 in 1954 has
the same buying power as
$836
in 2011
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
736.2%
Average inflation rate
3.80% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$836
Price difference ($100 base)
$736
CPI in 1954
26.9
CPI in 2011
224.939
Inflation in 1954
0.75%
Inflation in 2011
3.16%
$100 in 1954 → 2011
$836
$100 in 2011 → 1954
$11.96
What happened to prices between 1954 and 2011
Between 1954 and 2011, the Consumer Price Index went from 26.9 to 224.939.
Cumulatively, prices increased 736.2%, which works out to an average of
3.80% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1954 bought what
$0.12 buys in 2011: the 1954 dollar
lost 88.0% of its purchasing power over
these 57 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 2011 at the same ratio, 8.36: $1,000 becomes
$8,362, and $10,000 becomes $83,620.
Amount in 1954
Value in 2011
$1.00
$8.36
$5.00
$41.81
$10.00
$83.62
$20.00
$167
$50.00
$418
$100
$836
$500
$4,181
$1,000
$8,362
$5,000
$41,810
$10,000
$83,620
$100,000
$836,204
$1,000,000
$8,362,045
Inflation by spending category, 1954–2011
Between 1954 and 2011, medical care rose the most, up 2148.6%, while apparel rose the least, up 183.3%, against 736.2% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1954
spending costs in 2011, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1954 →
All items (CPI-U)
3.80%
$836
Medical care
5.61%
$2,249
Transportation
3.75%
$814
Food
3.73%
$808
Apparel
1.84%
$283
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 2011
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 1954–2011 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
2000–2010
2.39%
26.6%
$811
2010–2011
3.16%
3.2%
$836
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1954
$100 from 1954 had already become $359 by
1982, on its way to $836 in 2011; 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: 2011
In 2011, prices rose 3.2% and $100 from 1954 had the buying
power of $836; the year's average CPI of 224.939 is the level
behind every 2011 figure on this page.
2011 brought the fastest inflation of the post-recession recovery. Consumer
prices rose 3.2%, roughly double the 2010 pace, and the cause was mostly at the
pump and the grocery store. Unrest across the Middle East and North Africa,
including the war in Libya, pushed gasoline to an annual average of $3.52 a
gallon, the highest yearly figure recorded to that point. Food prices also
rose faster than the overall index.
Household budgets did not keep up. The median household income was $50,054,
barely above the year before, and the median new home sold for about $227,200.
The federal minimum wage stayed at $7.25 and a first-class stamp at 44 cents.
Policy stayed loose. The Federal Reserve kept its policy rate near zero and
launched Operation Twist in September to lower long-term rates. Washington
spent the summer in a debt-ceiling fight that ended in S&P’s August downgrade
of the U.S. credit rating. The inflation spike proved temporary: the
2011 rate was the high point of the early 2010s, and prices grew more slowly
in every year that followed until 2017.
MLA: “Inflation from 1954 to 2011: $100 is worth $836 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1954-to-2011/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1954 to 2011. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1954-to-2011/