$100 in 1955 is worth $166 in 1973,
because prices increased 65.7% over that period, an average of
2.84% a year.
$100 in 1955 has
the same buying power as
$166
in 1973
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
65.7%
Average inflation rate
2.84% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$166
Price difference ($100 base)
$65.67
CPI in 1955
26.8
CPI in 1973
44.4
Inflation in 1955
-0.37%
Inflation in 1973
6.22%
$100 in 1955 → 1973
$166
$100 in 1973 → 1955
$60.36
What happened to prices between 1955 and 1973
Between 1955 and 1973, the Consumer Price Index went from 26.8 to 44.4.
Cumulatively, prices increased 65.7%, which works out to an average of
2.84% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1955 bought what
$0.60 buys in 1973: the 1955 dollar
lost 39.6% of its purchasing power over
these 18 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 1973 at the same ratio, 1.66: $1,000 becomes
$1,657, and $10,000 becomes $16,567.
Amount in 1955
Value in 1973
$1.00
$1.66
$5.00
$8.28
$10.00
$16.57
$20.00
$33.13
$50.00
$82.84
$100
$166
$500
$828
$1,000
$1,657
$5,000
$8,284
$10,000
$16,567
$100,000
$165,672
$1,000,000
$1,656,716
Inflation by spending category, 1955–1973
Between 1955 and 1973, medical care rose the most, up 113.2%, while apparel rose the least, up 50.6%, against 65.7% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1955
spending costs in 1973, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1955 →
All items (CPI-U)
2.84%
$166
Medical care
4.30%
$213
Food
3.10%
$173
Transportation
2.63%
$160
Apparel
2.30%
$151
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 1973
Prices climbed fastest in the 1970s, averaging 4.60% a year, and slowest in the 1950s (2.01% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1955–1973 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
1970–1973
4.60%
14.4%
$166
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1955
$100 from 1955 had already become $116 by
1964, on its way to $166 in 1973; each row shows the CPI, that
year's inflation rate, and the running value.
Within the span, inflation peaked at 6.2% in 1973, and the smallest rise was 0.7% in 1959.
In 1973, prices rose 6.2% and $100 from 1955 had the buying
power of $166; the year's average CPI of 44.4 is the level
behind every 1973 figure on this page.
Consumer prices rose 6.2% in 1973, nearly double 1972’s 3.2%,
as Nixon’s wage and price controls were phased out through the year and
pressure the controls had been holding back broke loose. The bigger shock
arrived that October, when Arab oil-producing states embargoed exports to the
United States and other supporters of Israel in the Yom Kippur War. Crude
oil, which had traded around $3 a barrel, approached $12 by early 1974, and
gas lines became a fixture outside filling stations nationwide. Earlier in
the year, the Paris Peace Accords, signed that January 27, ended direct
American combat in Vietnam and set a 60-day deadline for withdrawing
remaining U.S. troops, even as fighting between North and South Vietnam went
on. Financial markets read the year correctly as a turning point: the Dow
Jones Industrial Average peaked at 1,051.70 on January 11, a level it would
not reach again until 1980, before the oil shock and rising interest rates
dragged it into a two-year bear market. A median household earned $10,512 in
1973, a new home sold for a median $32,500, and gas averaged 38.5 cents a
gallon, still under half of what the embargo’s effects would bring the
following year. Consumer prices stood 348.5% above their
1913 level by year’s end, with the decade’s worst inflation
still ahead.
MLA: “Inflation from 1955 to 1973: $100 is worth $166 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1955-to-1973/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1955 to 1973. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1955-to-1973/