$100 in 1954 is worth $911 in 2017,
because prices increased 811.2% over that period, an average of
3.57% a year.
$100 in 1954 has
the same buying power as
$911
in 2017
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
811.2%
Average inflation rate
3.57% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$911
Price difference ($100 base)
$811
CPI in 1954
26.9
CPI in 2017
245.12
Inflation in 1954
0.75%
Inflation in 2017
2.13%
$100 in 1954 → 2017
$911
$100 in 2017 → 1954
$10.97
What happened to prices between 1954 and 2017
Between 1954 and 2017, the Consumer Price Index went from 26.9 to 245.12.
Cumulatively, prices increased 811.2%, which works out to an average of
3.57% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1954 bought what
$0.11 buys in 2017: the 1954 dollar
lost 89.0% of its purchasing power over
these 63 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 2017 at the same ratio, 9.11: $1,000 becomes
$9,112, and $10,000 becomes $91,123.
Amount in 1954
Value in 2017
$1.00
$9.11
$5.00
$45.56
$10.00
$91.12
$20.00
$182
$50.00
$456
$100
$911
$500
$4,556
$1,000
$9,112
$5,000
$45,561
$10,000
$91,123
$100,000
$911,227
$1,000,000
$9,112,268
Inflation by spending category, 1954–2017
Between 1954 and 2017, medical care rose the most, up 2570.3%, while apparel rose the least, up 191.4%, against 811.2% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1954
spending costs in 2017, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1954 →
All items (CPI-U)
3.57%
$911
Medical care
5.35%
$2,670
Food
3.52%
$887
Transportation
3.30%
$772
Apparel
1.71%
$291
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 2017
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 1954–2017 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
2010–2017
1.69%
12.4%
$911
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1954
$100 from 1954 had already become $386 by
1984, on its way to $911 in 2017; 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 5 years; the calculator above covers any pair of years.
The destination year: 2017
In 2017, prices rose 2.1% and $100 from 1954 had the buying
power of $911; the year's average CPI of 245.12 is the level
behind every 2017 figure on this page.
2017 pushed consumer prices back above the Federal Reserve’s 2% target. The
CPI rose 2.1%, the first reading over 2% in five years, helped by a rebound
in energy after OPEC’s output cuts and by a storm-related spike at the pump:
Hurricane Harvey shut a large part of Gulf Coast refining in late August.
Gasoline averaged $2.42 a gallon, up from $2.14 in 2016.
Household incomes kept rising. The median household income reached $61,372,
and the median new home sold for about $322,100. The federal minimum wage
stayed at $7.25, its eighth year at that level, and a first-class stamp rose
to 49 cents.
The Fed raised rates three times, to 1.25–1.50%, and in October began
letting its bond holdings shrink. Congress passed the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act
in December, lowering the corporate rate to 21%. Even with unemployment near
4%, core inflation stayed under 2%, a puzzle that shaped Fed debates for the
next two years.
MLA: “Inflation from 1954 to 2017: $100 is worth $911 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1954-to-2017/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1954 to 2017. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1954-to-2017/