$100 in 1955 is worth $372 in 1983,
because prices increased 271.6% over that period, an average of
4.80% a year.
$100 in 1955 has
the same buying power as
$372
in 1983
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
271.6%
Average inflation rate
4.80% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$372
Price difference ($100 base)
$272
CPI in 1955
26.8
CPI in 1983
99.6
Inflation in 1955
-0.37%
Inflation in 1983
3.21%
$100 in 1955 → 1983
$372
$100 in 1983 → 1955
$26.91
What happened to prices between 1955 and 1983
Between 1955 and 1983, the Consumer Price Index went from 26.8 to 99.6.
Cumulatively, prices increased 271.6%, which works out to an average of
4.80% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1955 bought what
$0.27 buys in 1983: the 1955 dollar
lost 73.1% of its purchasing power over
these 28 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 1983 at the same ratio, 3.72: $1,000 becomes
$3,716, and $10,000 becomes $37,164.
Amount in 1955
Value in 1983
$1.00
$3.72
$5.00
$18.58
$10.00
$37.16
$20.00
$74.33
$50.00
$186
$100
$372
$500
$1,858
$1,000
$3,716
$5,000
$18,582
$10,000
$37,164
$100,000
$371,642
$1,000,000
$3,716,418
Inflation by spending category, 1955–1983
Between 1955 and 1983, medical care rose the most, up 452.7%, while apparel rose the least, up 133.6%, against 271.6% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1955
spending costs in 1983, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1955 →
All items (CPI-U)
4.80%
$372
Medical care
6.30%
$553
Transportation
4.93%
$385
Food
4.66%
$358
Apparel
3.08%
$234
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 1983
Prices climbed fastest in the 1970s, averaging 7.82% a year, and slowest in the 1950s (2.01% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1955–1983 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
1980–1983
6.52%
20.9%
$372
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1955
$100 from 1955 had already become $137 by
1969, on its way to $372 in 1983; 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 1983, prices rose 3.2% and $100 from 1955 had the buying
power of $372; the year's average CPI of 99.6 is the level
behind every 1983 figure on this page.
1983 confirmed that the Volcker disinflation was not a one-year fluke.
Consumer prices rose 3.2% for the year, nearly identical to 1982’s pace and a
fraction of the double-digit rates of 1980 and 1981. With inflation tamed and
interest rates coming down, the economy roared back from the 1981-82
recession: real GDP grew 4.6%, the strongest calendar-year growth since the
1950s, and unemployment fell from its 10.8% peak to 8.3% by December. Housing
and auto sales, both starved of credit during the recession, led the
rebound. In April, Congress and President Reagan enacted the Social Security
Amendments of 1983, a bipartisan rescue of a system projected to run out of
money within months. The law gradually raised the full retirement age from
65 to 67, began taxing benefits for higher-income retirees, and delayed that
year’s cost-of-living adjustment by six months. For a program whose benefits
had been indexed to the CPI since 1975, the amendments were the first major
sign that inflation-proofing Social Security carried a cost Congress could
not simply legislate away. By year’s end, gas averaged $1.16 a gallon and
mailing a letter still cost 20 cents, prices that had barely moved since
1981, a sharp break from the constant increases of the previous decade.
MLA: “Inflation from 1955 to 1983: $100 is worth $372 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1955-to-1983/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1955 to 1983. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1955-to-1983/