$100 in 1955 is worth $339 in 1981,
because prices increased 239.2% over that period, an average of
4.81% a year.
$100 in 1955 has
the same buying power as
$339
in 1981
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
239.2%
Average inflation rate
4.81% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$339
Price difference ($100 base)
$239
CPI in 1955
26.8
CPI in 1981
90.9
Inflation in 1955
-0.37%
Inflation in 1981
10.32%
$100 in 1955 → 1981
$339
$100 in 1981 → 1955
$29.48
What happened to prices between 1955 and 1981
Between 1955 and 1981, the Consumer Price Index went from 26.8 to 90.9.
Cumulatively, prices increased 239.2%, which works out to an average of
4.81% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1955 bought what
$0.29 buys in 1981: the 1955 dollar
lost 70.5% of its purchasing power over
these 26 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 1981 at the same ratio, 3.39: $1,000 becomes
$3,392, and $10,000 becomes $33,918.
Amount in 1955
Value in 1981
$1.00
$3.39
$5.00
$16.96
$10.00
$33.92
$20.00
$67.84
$50.00
$170
$100
$339
$500
$1,696
$1,000
$3,392
$5,000
$16,959
$10,000
$33,918
$100,000
$339,179
$1,000,000
$3,391,791
Inflation by spending category, 1955–1981
Between 1955 and 1981, medical care rose the most, up 355.5%, while apparel rose the least, up 122.1%, against 239.2% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1955
spending costs in 1981, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1955 →
All items (CPI-U)
4.81%
$339
Medical care
6.00%
$455
Transportation
5.06%
$361
Food
4.78%
$337
Apparel
3.12%
$222
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 1981
Prices climbed fastest in the 1980s, averaging 10.32% a year, and slowest in the 1950s (2.01% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1955–1981 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
1970–1980
7.82%
112.4%
$307
1980–1981
10.32%
10.3%
$339
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1955
$100 from 1955 had already become $130 by
1968, on its way to $339 in 1981; each row shows the CPI, that
year's inflation rate, and the running value.
Within the span, inflation peaked at 13.5% in 1980, and the smallest rise was 0.7% in 1959.
In 1981, prices rose 10.3% and $100 from 1955 had the buying
power of $339; the year's average CPI of 90.9 is the level
behind every 1981 figure on this page.
1981 was the year the inflation fever finally broke, at an extraordinary price.
Consumer prices rose 10.3%, the second year of back-to-back double-digit
inflation and the last time the U.S. would see one. To end it, Paul Volcker’s
Federal Reserve drove its policy rate above 19% and let borrowing costs go
where they may: a 30-year mortgage cost more than 18% by autumn, car loans and
business credit froze, and homebuilders mailed the Fed two-by-fours in protest.
The squeeze tipped the economy into recession in July, the deep 1981–82
downturn that would push unemployment past 10%. But it worked. Inflation fell
by nearly half within a year and to under 4% by 1983, the disinflation that
defined the following two decades. Even the price of mailing a letter told the
year’s story: postage went up twice in eight months.
MLA: “Inflation from 1955 to 1981: $100 is worth $339 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1955-to-1981/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1955 to 1981. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1955-to-1981/