$100 in 1955 is worth $524 in 1992,
because prices increased 423.5% over that period, an average of
4.58% a year.
$100 in 1955 has
the same buying power as
$524
in 1992
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
423.5%
Average inflation rate
4.58% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$524
Price difference ($100 base)
$424
CPI in 1955
26.8
CPI in 1992
140.3
Inflation in 1955
-0.37%
Inflation in 1992
3.01%
$100 in 1955 → 1992
$524
$100 in 1992 → 1955
$19.10
What happened to prices between 1955 and 1992
Between 1955 and 1992, the Consumer Price Index went from 26.8 to 140.3.
Cumulatively, prices increased 423.5%, which works out to an average of
4.58% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1955 bought what
$0.19 buys in 1992: the 1955 dollar
lost 80.9% of its purchasing power over
these 37 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 1992 at the same ratio, 5.24: $1,000 becomes
$5,235, and $10,000 becomes $52,351.
Amount in 1955
Value in 1992
$1.00
$5.24
$5.00
$26.18
$10.00
$52.35
$20.00
$105
$50.00
$262
$100
$524
$500
$2,618
$1,000
$5,235
$5,000
$26,175
$10,000
$52,351
$100,000
$523,507
$1,000,000
$5,235,075
Inflation by spending category, 1955–1992
Between 1955 and 1992, medical care rose the most, up 944.5%, while apparel rose the least, up 207.5%, against 423.5% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1955
spending costs in 1992, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1955 →
All items (CPI-U)
4.58%
$524
Medical care
6.55%
$1,045
Food
4.42%
$496
Transportation
4.39%
$490
Apparel
3.08%
$307
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 1992
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 1955–1992 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
1990–1992
3.61%
7.3%
$524
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1955
$100 from 1955 had already become $166 by
1973, on its way to $524 in 1992; 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: 1992
In 1992, prices rose 3.0% and $100 from 1955 had the buying
power of $524; the year's average CPI of 140.3 is the level
behind every 1992 figure on this page.
1992 was the year the recovery finally showed up in the numbers, if not yet in hiring. The
median household earned about $30,600, gas averaged $1.13 a gallon, and a new home cost roughly
$121,500. Inflation ran at 3.0% for the year, its calmest reading since the mid-1980s, as energy
prices stayed well below their 1990 peak and a slack labor market kept a lid on wages and prices
alike. The Federal Reserve kept cutting its policy rate through the year, reaching about 3% by
September, the lowest in decades, trying to jump-start hiring more than a year after the 1990-91
recession officially ended. The sluggish job market became the defining issue of the November
election, and Bill Clinton unseated incumbent George H.W. Bush, whose approval ratings had
fallen sharply from their post-Gulf War highs. In August, Hurricane Andrew tore through South
Florida, the costliest U.S. hurricane on record at the time, causing tens of billions of dollars
in damage and reshaping how insurers priced catastrophe risk for years afterward. Falling rates,
a costly hurricane, and an election fought over jobs defined a recovery that showed up in the
data well before it showed up in most paychecks.
MLA: “Inflation from 1955 to 1992: $100 is worth $524 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1955-to-1992/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1955 to 1992. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1955-to-1992/