$100 in 1955 is worth $151 in 1971,
because prices increased 51.1% over that period, an average of
2.61% a year.
$100 in 1955 has
the same buying power as
$151
in 1971
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
51.1%
Average inflation rate
2.61% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$151
Price difference ($100 base)
$51.12
CPI in 1955
26.8
CPI in 1971
40.5
Inflation in 1955
-0.37%
Inflation in 1971
4.38%
$100 in 1955 → 1971
$151
$100 in 1971 → 1955
$66.17
What happened to prices between 1955 and 1971
Between 1955 and 1971, the Consumer Price Index went from 26.8 to 40.5.
Cumulatively, prices increased 51.1%, which works out to an average of
2.61% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1955 bought what
$0.66 buys in 1971: the 1955 dollar
lost 33.8% of its purchasing power over
these 16 years.
Consumer prices fell 0.4% in 1955, the first annual decline since 1949,
as a strong rebound from the 1953-54 recession delivered growth without
much price pressure; automakers and appliance makers competed hard on
price for a booming consumer market. Organized labor consolidated that
December, when the American Federation of Labor and the Congress of
Industrial Organizations merged on the 5th under President George Meany,
uniting roughly 15 million workers in the AFL-CIO after two decades as
rival federations. That same day, a different kind of organizing began in
Montgomery, Alabama: four days after Rosa Parks was arrested for refusing
to give up her bus seat to a white passenger, the city’s Black community
began a boycott of its buses that would last more than a year and help
launch the civil rights movement’s mass phase. Markets got a scare that
September: news of Eisenhower’s heart attack on the 24th sent the Dow
Jones Industrial Average to its steepest one-day drop since the 1929
crash when trading resumed that Monday, before stocks recovered as the
president’s health improved. Consumer prices finished 1955 170.7% above
their 1913 level, essentially unchanged from where they
stood a year earlier. First-class postage held at 3 cents, and the
minimum wage stayed at 75 cents an hour.
Every 1955 amount converts to 1971 at the same ratio, 1.51: $1,000 becomes
$1,511, and $10,000 becomes $15,112.
Amount in 1955
Value in 1971
$1.00
$1.51
$5.00
$7.56
$10.00
$15.11
$20.00
$30.22
$50.00
$75.56
$100
$151
$500
$756
$1,000
$1,511
$5,000
$7,556
$10,000
$15,112
$100,000
$151,119
$1,000,000
$1,511,194
Inflation by spending category, 1955–1971
Between 1955 and 1971, medical care rose the most, up 98.4%, while apparel rose the least, up 42.4%, against 51.1% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1955
spending costs in 1971, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1955 →
All items (CPI-U)
2.61%
$151
Medical care
4.37%
$198
Transportation
2.70%
$153
Food
2.36%
$145
Apparel
2.23%
$142
Not shown because the BLS began these indexes after 1955: core (all items less food & energy) (1957–), energy (1957–), housing (1967–), recreation (1993–), education & communication (1993–).
Decade by decade: 1955 to 1971
Prices climbed fastest in the 1970s, averaging 4.38% a year, and slowest in the 1950s (2.01% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1955–1971 change:
Years
Avg. yearly inflation
Price change
$100 from 1955, at end
1955–1960
2.01%
10.4%
$110
1960–1970
2.74%
31.1%
$145
1970–1971
4.38%
4.4%
$151
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1955
$100 from 1955 had already become $114 by
1963, on its way to $151 in 1971; each row shows the CPI, that
year's inflation rate, and the running value.
Within the span, inflation peaked at 5.7% in 1970, and the smallest rise was 0.7% in 1959.
In 1971, prices rose 4.4% and $100 from 1955 had the buying
power of $151; the year's average CPI of 40.5 is the level
behind every 1971 figure on this page.
Consumer prices rose 4.4% in 1971, down from 1970’s 5.7% as
the recession that started in December 1969 finally cooled demand. The bigger
economic story came that August 15, when President Nixon closed the “gold
window” that let foreign governments exchange dollars for gold, ending the
Bretton Woods system that had anchored the dollar since World War II. The
same address announced a 90-day freeze on wages and prices, the first
peacetime controls the country had seen, an attempt to break inflationary
expectations without the slower grind of tighter money. The “Nixon Shock,” as
it came to be known, let the dollar float against other currencies for the
first time and set the stage for a wage-and-price-control regime that would
run in various forms into 1973. Politically, the country lowered its voting
age that year: the 26th Amendment, ratified July 1, extended the vote to
18-year-olds, capping a campaign built on the argument that men old enough to
be drafted to Vietnam were old enough to vote for the people who sent them.
The Postal Service, independent since 1970’s reorganization, raised
first-class postage from 6 to 8 cents that May. A median household earned
$9,028 in 1971, up from $8,734 the year before, while gas held near 36 cents
a gallon and a new home sold for a median $25,200. Consumer prices stood
309.1% above their 1913 level by year’s end, still years away
from the double-digit inflation the controls were meant to prevent.
MLA: “Inflation from 1955 to 1971: $100 is worth $151 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1955-to-1971/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1955 to 1971. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1955-to-1971/