$100 in 1955 is worth $388 in 1984,
because prices increased 287.7% over that period, an average of
4.78% a year.
$100 in 1955 has
the same buying power as
$388
in 1984
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
287.7%
Average inflation rate
4.78% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$388
Price difference ($100 base)
$288
CPI in 1955
26.8
CPI in 1984
103.9
Inflation in 1955
-0.37%
Inflation in 1984
4.32%
$100 in 1955 → 1984
$388
$100 in 1984 → 1955
$25.79
What happened to prices between 1955 and 1984
Between 1955 and 1984, the Consumer Price Index went from 26.8 to 103.9.
Cumulatively, prices increased 287.7%, which works out to an average of
4.78% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1955 bought what
$0.26 buys in 1984: the 1955 dollar
lost 74.2% of its purchasing power over
these 29 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 1984 at the same ratio, 3.88: $1,000 becomes
$3,877, and $10,000 becomes $38,769.
Amount in 1955
Value in 1984
$1.00
$3.88
$5.00
$19.38
$10.00
$38.77
$20.00
$77.54
$50.00
$194
$100
$388
$500
$1,938
$1,000
$3,877
$5,000
$19,384
$10,000
$38,769
$100,000
$387,687
$1,000,000
$3,876,866
Inflation by spending category, 1955–1984
Between 1955 and 1984, medical care rose the most, up 486.8%, while apparel rose the least, up 138.0%, against 287.7% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1955
spending costs in 1984, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1955 →
All items (CPI-U)
4.78%
$388
Medical care
6.29%
$587
Transportation
4.91%
$402
Food
4.63%
$371
Apparel
3.04%
$238
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 1984
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 1955–1984 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
1980–1984
5.97%
26.1%
$388
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1955
$100 from 1955 had already become $137 by
1969, on its way to $388 in 1984; 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 1984, prices rose 4.3% and $100 from 1955 had the buying
power of $388; the year's average CPI of 103.9 is the level
behind every 1984 figure on this page.
1984 was the year the recovery became a boom. Real GDP grew 7.2%, the
fastest calendar-year growth since 1951, as the tax cuts passed in 1981
combined with falling interest rates and rebuilding consumer confidence.
Unemployment, which had topped 10.8% just two years earlier, fell below
7.5%. Inflation ticked up to 4.3% from 3.2% the year before, but nothing
close to a return of the 1970s wage-price spiral: the Federal Reserve under
Paul Volcker kept policy tight enough to hold the line while growth ran hot.
The strength of the expansion, branded “Morning in America” in President
Reagan’s reelection campaign, carried him to a 49-state landslide over
Walter Mondale that November, at the time the widest electoral-vote margin
in U.S. history. For households, the numbers behind the slogan were
concrete: median income rose to about $22,400, and a gallon of gas cost
$1.13, roughly what it had cost three years earlier even as wages kept
climbing. The contrast with 1980, when 13.5% inflation and interest rates
near 20% had defined the economy, could not have been sharper.
MLA: “Inflation from 1955 to 1984: $100 is worth $388 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1955-to-1984/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1955 to 1984. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1955-to-1984/