$100 in 1955 is worth $488 in 1990,
because prices increased 387.7% over that period, an average of
4.63% a year.
$100 in 1955 has
the same buying power as
$488
in 1990
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
387.7%
Average inflation rate
4.63% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$488
Price difference ($100 base)
$388
CPI in 1955
26.8
CPI in 1990
130.7
Inflation in 1955
-0.37%
Inflation in 1990
5.40%
$100 in 1955 → 1990
$488
$100 in 1990 → 1955
$20.50
What happened to prices between 1955 and 1990
Between 1955 and 1990, the Consumer Price Index went from 26.8 to 130.7.
Cumulatively, prices increased 387.7%, which works out to an average of
4.63% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1955 bought what
$0.21 buys in 1990: the 1955 dollar
lost 79.5% of its purchasing power over
these 35 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 1990 at the same ratio, 4.88: $1,000 becomes
$4,877, and $10,000 becomes $48,769.
Amount in 1955
Value in 1990
$1.00
$4.88
$5.00
$24.38
$10.00
$48.77
$20.00
$97.54
$50.00
$244
$100
$488
$500
$2,438
$1,000
$4,877
$5,000
$24,384
$10,000
$48,769
$100,000
$487,687
$1,000,000
$4,876,866
Inflation by spending category, 1955–1990
Between 1955 and 1990, medical care rose the most, up 794.5%, while apparel rose the least, up 189.3%, against 387.7% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1955
spending costs in 1990, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1955 →
All items (CPI-U)
4.63%
$488
Medical care
6.46%
$895
Food
4.56%
$476
Transportation
4.50%
$467
Apparel
3.08%
$289
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 1990
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 1955–1990 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
1980–1990
4.72%
58.6%
$488
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1955
$100 from 1955 had already become $166 by
1973, on its way to $488 in 1990; 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: 1990
In 1990, prices rose 5.4% and $100 from 1955 had the buying
power of $488; the year's average CPI of 130.7 is the level
behind every 1990 figure on this page.
In 1990, the median U.S. household earned about $29,900, gas averaged $1.15 a
gallon, and mailing a letter cost a quarter. Inflation ran hot at 5.4% for the
year, its highest rate since 1982, pushed up by an oil shock after Iraq’s
invasion of Kuwait, and the economy tipped into recession that summer. It was
the last gasp of elevated inflation before the long calm of the 1990s.
MLA: “Inflation from 1955 to 1990: $100 is worth $488 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1955-to-1990/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1955 to 1990. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1955-to-1990/