$100 in 1954 is worth $933 in 2018,
because prices increased 833.5% over that period, an average of
3.55% a year.
$100 in 1954 has
the same buying power as
$933
in 2018
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
833.5%
Average inflation rate
3.55% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$933
Price difference ($100 base)
$833
CPI in 1954
26.9
CPI in 2018
251.107
Inflation in 1954
0.75%
Inflation in 2018
2.44%
$100 in 1954 → 2018
$933
$100 in 2018 → 1954
$10.71
What happened to prices between 1954 and 2018
Between 1954 and 2018, the Consumer Price Index went from 26.9 to 251.107.
Cumulatively, prices increased 833.5%, which works out to an average of
3.55% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1954 bought what
$0.11 buys in 2018: the 1954 dollar
lost 89.3% of its purchasing power over
these 64 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 2018 at the same ratio, 9.33: $1,000 becomes
$9,335, and $10,000 becomes $93,348.
Amount in 1954
Value in 2018
$1.00
$9.33
$5.00
$46.67
$10.00
$93.35
$20.00
$187
$50.00
$467
$100
$933
$500
$4,667
$1,000
$9,335
$5,000
$46,674
$10,000
$93,348
$100,000
$933,483
$1,000,000
$9,334,833
Inflation by spending category, 1954–2018
Between 1954 and 2018, medical care rose the most, up 2623.1%, while apparel rose the least, up 191.5%, against 833.5% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1954
spending costs in 2018, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1954 →
All items (CPI-U)
3.55%
$933
Medical care
5.30%
$2,723
Food
3.49%
$899
Transportation
3.32%
$807
Apparel
1.69%
$292
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 2018
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 1954–2018 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
2010–2018
1.78%
15.2%
$933
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1954
$100 from 1954 had already become $386 by
1984, on its way to $933 in 2018; 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: 2018
In 2018, prices rose 2.4% and $100 from 1954 had the buying
power of $933; the year's average CPI of 251.107 is the level
behind every 2018 figure on this page.
2018 was the peak of the late-2010s expansion. Consumer prices rose 2.4%,
the fastest since 2011, with gasoline averaging $2.72 a gallon after a summer
high. Unemployment fell to 3.7% in September, the lowest since 1969, and median
household income reached $63,179. The median new home sold for about $331,800,
and a first-class stamp cost 50 cents. The federal minimum wage was still $7.25.
Trade policy became a price factor for the first time in decades. New tariffs
on steel, aluminum, and a growing list of Chinese goods raised costs for
manufacturers and some consumer products, and retaliation cut into exports of
soybeans and other farm goods.
The Federal Reserve, led from February by Jerome Powell, raised rates four
times to 2.25–2.50%. A stock-market drop of nearly 20% in the fourth quarter
led the Fed to signal a pause in early 2019. Oil fell from over $75 a barrel in
October to below $50 by December, which pulled headline inflation lower going
into the next year.
MLA: “Inflation from 1954 to 2018: $100 is worth $933 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1954-to-2018/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1954 to 2018. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1954-to-2018/