$100 in 1955 is worth $508 in 1991,
because prices increased 408.2% over that period, an average of
4.62% a year.
$100 in 1955 has
the same buying power as
$508
in 1991
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
408.2%
Average inflation rate
4.62% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$508
Price difference ($100 base)
$408
CPI in 1955
26.8
CPI in 1991
136.2
Inflation in 1955
-0.37%
Inflation in 1991
4.21%
$100 in 1955 → 1991
$508
$100 in 1991 → 1955
$19.68
What happened to prices between 1955 and 1991
Between 1955 and 1991, the Consumer Price Index went from 26.8 to 136.2.
Cumulatively, prices increased 408.2%, which works out to an average of
4.62% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1955 bought what
$0.20 buys in 1991: the 1955 dollar
lost 80.3% of its purchasing power over
these 36 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 1991 at the same ratio, 5.08: $1,000 becomes
$5,082, and $10,000 becomes $50,821.
Amount in 1955
Value in 1991
$1.00
$5.08
$5.00
$25.41
$10.00
$50.82
$20.00
$102
$50.00
$254
$100
$508
$500
$2,541
$1,000
$5,082
$5,000
$25,410
$10,000
$50,821
$100,000
$508,209
$1,000,000
$5,082,090
Inflation by spending category, 1955–1991
Between 1955 and 1991, medical care rose the most, up 872.5%, while apparel rose the least, up 200.0%, against 408.2% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1955
spending costs in 1991, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1955 →
All items (CPI-U)
4.62%
$508
Medical care
6.52%
$973
Food
4.52%
$490
Transportation
4.45%
$480
Apparel
3.10%
$300
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 1991
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 1955–1991 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
1990–1991
4.21%
4.2%
$508
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1955
$100 from 1955 had already become $166 by
1973, on its way to $508 in 1991; 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: 1991
In 1991, prices rose 4.2% and $100 from 1955 had the buying
power of $508; the year's average CPI of 136.2 is the level
behind every 1991 figure on this page.
1991 opened in recession and closed in a slow, uneven recovery. The median household earned
about $30,100 for the year, gas averaged $1.14 a gallon, and a new home cost roughly $120,000.
Inflation ran at 4.2% for the year, down from 1990’s oil-driven spike, as the Gulf War ended in
February and crude oil retreated from its autumn highs. The recession itself, dated by the
National Bureau of Economic Research from July 1990 to March 1991, was technically over by
spring, but hiring stayed weak well into 1992, the stretch economists came to call the jobless
recovery. The Federal Reserve kept cutting interest rates through the year to support growth,
reversing the tightening campaign it had run through the late 1980s. In April the federal
minimum wage rose to $4.25 an hour, the second step of an increase from the $3.35 rate that had
held since 1981. The Postal Service had already raised the cost of a first-class stamp to 29
cents that February. It was the first full year of the decade without an oil shock driving
prices, even if the job market took longer to follow.
MLA: “Inflation from 1955 to 1991: $100 is worth $508 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1955-to-1991/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1955 to 1991. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1955-to-1991/