$100 in 1955 is worth $585 in 1996,
because prices increased 485.4% over that period, an average of
4.40% a year.
$100 in 1955 has
the same buying power as
$585
in 1996
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
485.4%
Average inflation rate
4.40% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$585
Price difference ($100 base)
$485
CPI in 1955
26.8
CPI in 1996
156.9
Inflation in 1955
-0.37%
Inflation in 1996
2.95%
$100 in 1955 → 1996
$585
$100 in 1996 → 1955
$17.08
What happened to prices between 1955 and 1996
Between 1955 and 1996, the Consumer Price Index went from 26.8 to 156.9.
Cumulatively, prices increased 485.4%, which works out to an average of
4.40% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1955 bought what
$0.17 buys in 1996: the 1955 dollar
lost 82.9% of its purchasing power over
these 41 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 1996 at the same ratio, 5.85: $1,000 becomes
$5,854, and $10,000 becomes $58,545.
Amount in 1955
Value in 1996
$1.00
$5.85
$5.00
$29.27
$10.00
$58.54
$20.00
$117
$50.00
$293
$100
$585
$500
$2,927
$1,000
$5,854
$5,000
$29,272
$10,000
$58,545
$100,000
$585,448
$1,000,000
$5,854,478
Inflation by spending category, 1955–1996
Between 1955 and 1996, medical care rose the most, up 1153.8%, while apparel rose the least, up 207.0%, against 485.4% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1955
spending costs in 1996, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1955 →
All items (CPI-U)
4.40%
$585
Medical care
6.36%
$1,254
Transportation
4.27%
$554
Food
4.25%
$551
Apparel
2.77%
$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 1996
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 1955–1996 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
1990–1996
3.09%
20.0%
$585
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1955
$100 from 1955 had already become $201 by
1975, on its way to $585 in 1996; 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: 1996
In 1996, prices rose 3.0% and $100 from 1955 had the buying
power of $585; the year's average CPI of 156.9 is the level
behind every 1996 figure on this page.
The median household earned about $35,500 in 1996, gas averaged $1.23 a gallon, up noticeably
from the mid-decade lull, and a new home cost roughly $140,000. Inflation ran at 3.0% for the
year, ticking back up from 1995 as energy prices firmed. Washington passed two of the decade’s
more consequential laws that year: in February, the Telecommunications Act rewrote the rules for
phone, cable, and broadcast media for the first time since 1934, opening local markets to
competition and easing ownership limits; in August, a welfare overhaul ended the federal
guarantee of cash assistance, replacing it with block grants to states and time limits on
benefits. In October, the federal minimum wage rose to $4.75 an hour, its first increase in five
years and the opening step of a two-part law that would take it to $5.15 the following
September. Two sweeping new laws and a minimum wage finally on the move again made 1996 a year
that changed more about how the economy was governed than about how fast prices moved.
MLA: “Inflation from 1955 to 1996: $100 is worth $585 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1955-to-1996/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1955 to 1996. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1955-to-1996/