$100 in 1955 is worth $569 in 1995,
because prices increased 468.7% over that period, an average of
4.44% a year.
$100 in 1955 has
the same buying power as
$569
in 1995
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
468.7%
Average inflation rate
4.44% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$569
Price difference ($100 base)
$469
CPI in 1955
26.8
CPI in 1995
152.4
Inflation in 1955
-0.37%
Inflation in 1995
2.83%
$100 in 1955 → 1995
$569
$100 in 1995 → 1955
$17.59
What happened to prices between 1955 and 1995
Between 1955 and 1995, the Consumer Price Index went from 26.8 to 152.4.
Cumulatively, prices increased 468.7%, which works out to an average of
4.44% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1955 bought what
$0.18 buys in 1995: the 1955 dollar
lost 82.4% of its purchasing power over
these 40 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 1995 at the same ratio, 5.69: $1,000 becomes
$5,687, and $10,000 becomes $56,866.
Amount in 1955
Value in 1995
$1.00
$5.69
$5.00
$28.43
$10.00
$56.87
$20.00
$114
$50.00
$284
$100
$569
$500
$2,843
$1,000
$5,687
$5,000
$28,433
$10,000
$56,866
$100,000
$568,657
$1,000,000
$5,686,567
Inflation by spending category, 1955–1995
Between 1955 and 1995, medical care rose the most, up 1111.5%, while apparel rose the least, up 207.7%, against 468.7% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1955
spending costs in 1995, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1955 →
All items (CPI-U)
4.44%
$569
Medical care
6.43%
$1,212
Transportation
4.30%
$539
Food
4.28%
$534
Apparel
2.85%
$308
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 1995
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 1955–1995 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
1990–1995
3.12%
16.6%
$569
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1955
$100 from 1955 had already become $201 by
1975, on its way to $569 in 1995; 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: 1995
In 1995, prices rose 2.8% and $100 from 1955 had the buying
power of $569; the year's average CPI of 152.4 is the level
behind every 1995 figure on this page.
In 1995, gas averaged $1.15 a gallon, a new home cost roughly $133,900, and the median household
earned about $34,100. Inflation ran at 2.8% for the year, little changed from 1994, as the
Federal Reserve shifted from raising rates to cutting them. Having lifted its policy rate six
times the year before, the Fed judged by July that the economy had cooled enough on its own, and
trimmed rates instead, an outcome economists would later point to as a rare soft landing. The
year opened with a currency crisis: Mexico’s peso lost roughly half its value against the dollar
in a matter of weeks, and the U.S. Treasury and the IMF assembled a $50 billion rescue package,
controversial in Congress, to stabilize it and keep the crisis from spreading to other emerging
markets. Closer to home, a budget standoff between President Clinton and the Republican Congress
shut down federal agencies twice, first for five days in November and then for 21 days spanning
December into January 1996, the longest shutdown up to that point. The Postal Service raised the
cost of a first-class stamp to 32 cents in January. Low, steady inflation was about the only calm
part of 1995’s economic story.
MLA: “Inflation from 1955 to 1995: $100 is worth $569 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1955-to-1995/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1955 to 1995. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1955-to-1995/