$100 in 1955 is worth $212 in 1976,
because prices increased 112.3% over that period, an average of
3.65% a year.
$100 in 1955 has
the same buying power as
$212
in 1976
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
112.3%
Average inflation rate
3.65% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$212
Price difference ($100 base)
$112
CPI in 1955
26.8
CPI in 1976
56.9
Inflation in 1955
-0.37%
Inflation in 1976
5.76%
$100 in 1955 → 1976
$212
$100 in 1976 → 1955
$47.10
What happened to prices between 1955 and 1976
Between 1955 and 1976, the Consumer Price Index went from 26.8 to 56.9.
Cumulatively, prices increased 112.3%, which works out to an average of
3.65% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1955 bought what
$0.47 buys in 1976: the 1955 dollar
lost 52.9% of its purchasing power over
these 21 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 1976 at the same ratio, 2.12: $1,000 becomes
$2,123, and $10,000 becomes $21,231.
Amount in 1955
Value in 1976
$1.00
$2.12
$5.00
$10.62
$10.00
$21.23
$20.00
$42.46
$50.00
$106
$100
$212
$500
$1,062
$1,000
$2,123
$5,000
$10,616
$10,000
$21,231
$100,000
$212,313
$1,000,000
$2,123,134
Inflation by spending category, 1955–1976
Between 1955 and 1976, medical care rose the most, up 185.7%, while apparel rose the least, up 75.3%, against 112.3% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1955
spending costs in 1976, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1955 →
All items (CPI-U)
3.65%
$212
Medical care
5.13%
$286
Food
3.86%
$222
Transportation
3.68%
$214
Apparel
2.71%
$175
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 1976
Prices climbed fastest in the 1970s, averaging 6.59% a year, and slowest in the 1950s (2.01% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1955–1976 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
1970–1976
6.59%
46.6%
$212
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1955
$100 from 1955 had already become $118 by
1965, on its way to $212 in 1976; 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 1976, prices rose 5.8% and $100 from 1955 had the buying
power of $212; the year's average CPI of 56.9 is the level
behind every 1976 figure on this page.
Consumer prices rose 5.8% in 1976, the calmest pace since 1972,
as the economy pulled out of the 1973-75 recession and price growth settled
to roughly half its 1974 peak. The recovery gave Americans
room to celebrate: tall ships filled New York Harbor and fireworks lit cities
nationwide on July 4 for the country’s bicentennial, a rare moment of shared
celebration after Vietnam and Watergate. Politically, Jimmy Carter, a former
Georgia governor running as a Washington outsider, defeated incumbent Gerald
Ford that November, campaigning on restoring trust in government and bringing
down inflation and unemployment together. In a California garage, Steve
Jobs, Steve Wozniak, and Ronald Wayne founded Apple Computer that April to
sell the Apple I, a bare circuit board aimed at electronics hobbyists, a
business that looked far from consequential at the time. First-class
postage, which had risen to 13 cents that past December 31, held there
through the year, the longest stretch without a rate change since the Postal
Service’s creation. A median household earned $12,686 in 1976, a new home
sold for a median $44,200, and gas averaged 59 cents a gallon. Consumer
prices stood 474.7% above their 1913 level, a calm interlude
before inflation turned back up.
MLA: “Inflation from 1955 to 1976: $100 is worth $212 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1955-to-1976/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1955 to 1976. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1955-to-1976/