$100 in 1955 is worth $441 in 1988,
because prices increased 341.4% over that period, an average of
4.60% a year.
$100 in 1955 has
the same buying power as
$441
in 1988
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
341.4%
Average inflation rate
4.60% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$441
Price difference ($100 base)
$341
CPI in 1955
26.8
CPI in 1988
118.3
Inflation in 1955
-0.37%
Inflation in 1988
4.14%
$100 in 1955 → 1988
$441
$100 in 1988 → 1955
$22.65
What happened to prices between 1955 and 1988
Between 1955 and 1988, the Consumer Price Index went from 26.8 to 118.3.
Cumulatively, prices increased 341.4%, which works out to an average of
4.60% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1955 bought what
$0.23 buys in 1988: the 1955 dollar
lost 77.3% of its purchasing power over
these 33 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 1988 at the same ratio, 4.41: $1,000 becomes
$4,414, and $10,000 becomes $44,142.
Amount in 1955
Value in 1988
$1.00
$4.41
$5.00
$22.07
$10.00
$44.14
$20.00
$88.28
$50.00
$221
$100
$441
$500
$2,207
$1,000
$4,414
$5,000
$22,071
$10,000
$44,142
$100,000
$441,418
$1,000,000
$4,414,179
Inflation by spending category, 1955–1988
Between 1955 and 1988, medical care rose the most, up 661.5%, while apparel rose the least, up 169.0%, against 341.4% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1955
spending costs in 1988, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1955 →
All items (CPI-U)
4.60%
$441
Medical care
6.35%
$762
Food
4.48%
$425
Transportation
4.45%
$421
Apparel
3.04%
$269
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 1988
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 1955–1988 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
1980–1988
4.62%
43.6%
$441
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1955
$100 from 1955 had already become $151 by
1971, on its way to $441 in 1988; 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.
Long periods are sampled every 2 years; the calculator above covers any pair of years.
The destination year: 1988
In 1988, prices rose 4.1% and $100 from 1955 had the buying
power of $441; the year's average CPI of 118.3 is the level
behind every 1988 figure on this page.
By 1988, the economic expansion that began in the ashes of the 1981-82
recession was in its sixth year, and the Federal Reserve was watching for
signs it had run too long. Inflation rose to 4.1%, up from 3.6% the year
before, while unemployment fell to its lowest level since 1974. Alan
Greenspan’s Fed responded by raising the federal funds rate through the
year, from about 6.5% to 8.5%, trying to cool demand before prices
accelerated the way they had in the 1970s. Households still felt the
difference between this expansion and the last one: gas held near 90 cents
a gallon, almost exactly its 1987 price, and median household income rose
to roughly $27,200. The one price that moved was postage, which rose from
22 to 25 cents in April, the fourth increase of the decade but a far
gentler pace than the string of increases in the late 1970s and early
1980s. In November, Vice President George H.W. Bush won the presidency on
the strength of the expansion, promising in his nomination speech to hold
the line on taxes. Both the boom and that pledge would run into trouble
within two years, as the Fed’s rate increases helped tip the economy toward
the 1990-91 recession.
MLA: “Inflation from 1955 to 1988: $100 is worth $441 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1955-to-1988/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1955 to 1988. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1955-to-1988/