$100 in 1955 is worth $201 in 1975,
because prices increased 100.7% over that period, an average of
3.55% a year.
$100 in 1955 has
the same buying power as
$201
in 1975
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
100.7%
Average inflation rate
3.55% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$201
Price difference ($100 base)
$101
CPI in 1955
26.8
CPI in 1975
53.8
Inflation in 1955
-0.37%
Inflation in 1975
9.13%
$100 in 1955 → 1975
$201
$100 in 1975 → 1955
$49.81
What happened to prices between 1955 and 1975
Between 1955 and 1975, the Consumer Price Index went from 26.8 to 53.8.
Cumulatively, prices increased 100.7%, which works out to an average of
3.55% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1955 bought what
$0.50 buys in 1975: the 1955 dollar
lost 50.2% of its purchasing power over
these 20 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 1975 at the same ratio, 2.01: $1,000 becomes
$2,007, and $10,000 becomes $20,075.
Amount in 1955
Value in 1975
$1.00
$2.01
$5.00
$10.04
$10.00
$20.07
$20.00
$40.15
$50.00
$100
$100
$201
$500
$1,004
$1,000
$2,007
$5,000
$10,037
$10,000
$20,075
$100,000
$200,746
$1,000,000
$2,007,463
Inflation by spending category, 1955–1975
Between 1955 and 1975, medical care rose the most, up 161.0%, while apparel rose the least, up 69.0%, against 100.7% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1955
spending costs in 1975, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1955 →
All items (CPI-U)
3.55%
$201
Medical care
4.91%
$261
Food
3.90%
$215
Transportation
3.37%
$194
Apparel
2.66%
$169
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 1975
Prices climbed fastest in the 1970s, averaging 6.76% a year, and slowest in the 1950s (2.01% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1955–1975 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
1970–1975
6.76%
38.7%
$201
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1955
$100 from 1955 had already become $118 by
1965, on its way to $201 in 1975; 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 1975, prices rose 9.1% and $100 from 1955 had the buying
power of $201; the year's average CPI of 53.8 is the level
behind every 1975 figure on this page.
Consumer prices rose 9.1% in 1975, easing slightly from 1974’s
11.0% but still running far above anything the country had experienced before
the decade began. The recession that started in November 1973, the deepest
since the Great Depression, bottomed out that March, yet unemployment kept
climbing through the year and touched 9%, a combination of high inflation and
high joblessness that had no precedent in the postwar data. Vietnam ended
that April 30, when North Vietnamese forces captured Saigon and the last
Americans were evacuated by helicopter from the U.S. embassy roof. Fiscal
strain hit closer to home too: New York City, facing bankruptcy after years
of borrowing to paper over budget gaps, asked Washington for help that
October. President Ford’s initial refusal produced the Daily News headline
“Ford to City: Drop Dead,” though he ultimately signed a federal loan package
that December. Amid the gloom, Bill Gates and Paul Allen founded Microsoft
that April in Albuquerque, New Mexico, to sell a version of the BASIC
programming language for the Altair 8800, one of the first personal
computers sold to hobbyists. A median household earned $11,800 in 1975, a new
home sold for a median $39,300, and first-class postage held at 10 cents,
unchanged since 1974’s increase. Consumer prices stood 443.4%
above their 1913 level, with the decade barely past its
midpoint.
MLA: “Inflation from 1955 to 1975: $100 is worth $201 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1955-to-1975/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1955 to 1975. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1955-to-1975/