$100 in 1955 is worth $599 in 1997,
because prices increased 498.9% over that period, an average of
4.35% a year.
$100 in 1955 has
the same buying power as
$599
in 1997
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
498.9%
Average inflation rate
4.35% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$599
Price difference ($100 base)
$499
CPI in 1955
26.8
CPI in 1997
160.5
Inflation in 1955
-0.37%
Inflation in 1997
2.29%
$100 in 1955 → 1997
$599
$100 in 1997 → 1955
$16.70
What happened to prices between 1955 and 1997
Between 1955 and 1997, the Consumer Price Index went from 26.8 to 160.5.
Cumulatively, prices increased 498.9%, which works out to an average of
4.35% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1955 bought what
$0.17 buys in 1997: the 1955 dollar
lost 83.3% of its purchasing power over
these 42 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 1997 at the same ratio, 5.99: $1,000 becomes
$5,989, and $10,000 becomes $59,888.
Amount in 1955
Value in 1997
$1.00
$5.99
$5.00
$29.94
$10.00
$59.89
$20.00
$120
$50.00
$299
$100
$599
$500
$2,994
$1,000
$5,989
$5,000
$29,944
$10,000
$59,888
$100,000
$598,881
$1,000,000
$5,988,806
Inflation by spending category, 1955–1997
Between 1955 and 1997, medical care rose the most, up 1189.0%, while apparel rose the least, up 209.8%, against 498.9% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1955
spending costs in 1997, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1955 →
All items (CPI-U)
4.35%
$599
Medical care
6.28%
$1,289
Food
4.21%
$566
Transportation
4.18%
$559
Apparel
2.73%
$310
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 1997
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 1955–1997 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
1990–1997
2.98%
22.8%
$599
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1955
$100 from 1955 had already become $201 by
1975, on its way to $599 in 1997; 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: 1997
In 1997, prices rose 2.3% and $100 from 1955 had the buying
power of $599; the year's average CPI of 160.5 is the level
behind every 1997 figure on this page.
The median household earned about $37,000 in 1997, gas averaged $1.23 a gallon, and a new home
cost roughly $146,000. Inflation ran at 2.3% for the year, its lowest reading since the
mid-1980s, as a strong dollar and falling import prices helped keep costs in check at home even
as trouble built abroad. In July, Thailand devalued the baht, and the currency collapse that
followed spread within months to Indonesia, South Korea, and other Southeast Asian economies,
forcing IMF bailouts and years of recession across the region, though the crisis had little
immediate effect on U.S. prices. At home, Washington had a calmer year: in August, President
Clinton and Congress agreed on the Balanced Budget Act and the Taxpayer Relief Act, which cut
capital gains tax rates, created the Roth IRA, and set the federal budget on a path to its first
surplus in nearly three decades. In September, the federal minimum wage completed a two-step
rise to $5.15 an hour, where it would stay for a decade. Low inflation, a firming budget picture,
and a crisis unfolding an ocean away made 1997 a year the U.S. economy looked stronger than much
of the rest of the world’s.
MLA: “Inflation from 1955 to 1997: $100 is worth $599 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1955-to-1997/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1955 to 1997. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1955-to-1997/