$100 in 1955 is worth $184 in 1974,
because prices increased 84.0% over that period, an average of
3.26% a year.
$100 in 1955 has
the same buying power as
$184
in 1974
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
84.0%
Average inflation rate
3.26% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$184
Price difference ($100 base)
$83.96
CPI in 1955
26.8
CPI in 1974
49.3
Inflation in 1955
-0.37%
Inflation in 1974
11.04%
$100 in 1955 → 1974
$184
$100 in 1974 → 1955
$54.36
What happened to prices between 1955 and 1974
Between 1955 and 1974, the Consumer Price Index went from 26.8 to 49.3.
Cumulatively, prices increased 84.0%, which works out to an average of
3.26% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1955 bought what
$0.54 buys in 1974: the 1955 dollar
lost 45.6% of its purchasing power over
these 19 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 1974 at the same ratio, 1.84: $1,000 becomes
$1,840, and $10,000 becomes $18,396.
Amount in 1955
Value in 1974
$1.00
$1.84
$5.00
$9.20
$10.00
$18.40
$20.00
$36.79
$50.00
$91.98
$100
$184
$500
$920
$1,000
$1,840
$5,000
$9,198
$10,000
$18,396
$100,000
$183,955
$1,000,000
$1,839,552
Inflation by spending category, 1955–1974
Between 1955 and 1974, medical care rose the most, up 133.0%, while apparel rose the least, up 61.8%, against 84.0% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1955
spending costs in 1974, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1955 →
All items (CPI-U)
3.26%
$184
Medical care
4.55%
$233
Food
3.67%
$198
Transportation
3.07%
$178
Apparel
2.56%
$162
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 1974
Prices climbed fastest in the 1970s, averaging 6.17% a year, and slowest in the 1950s (2.01% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1955–1974 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
1970–1974
6.17%
27.1%
$184
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1955
$100 from 1955 had already become $116 by
1964, on its way to $184 in 1974; each row shows the CPI, that
year's inflation rate, and the running value.
Within the span, inflation peaked at 11.0% in 1974, and the smallest rise was 0.7% in 1959.
In 1974, prices rose 11.0% and $100 from 1955 had the buying
power of $184; the year's average CPI of 49.3 is the level
behind every 1974 figure on this page.
1974 was the year the postwar economy broke its old rules. Consumer prices
rose 11.0%, the fastest annual increase since 1947, as the Arab oil embargo
that ran from October 1973 to March 1974 roughly quadrupled the price of
crude oil worldwide. Gasoline, which had averaged 38.5 cents a gallon in
1973, jumped to 53.2 cents, and shortages forced many states into odd-even
rationing at the pump. Nixon’s wage and price controls, in place in some form
since 1971, expired at the end of April, removing the last brake on prices
just as the oil shock hit. Nixon himself resigned in August over Watergate,
and Gerald Ford’s response to inflation, a voluntary “Whip Inflation Now”
campaign built around lapel buttons, became a symbol of how little
conventional politics could do against the problem. Prices kept climbing even
as the economy weakened: a recession that started in November 1973 dragged
on, the Dow fell to a bear-market bottom of 577.60 in December, and
unemployment was already rising toward the 9% it would reach in 1975. The
combination of rising prices and a shrinking economy gave the decade its
name: stagflation.
MLA: “Inflation from 1955 to 1974: $100 is worth $184 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1955-to-1974/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1955 to 1974. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1955-to-1974/