$100 in 1955 is worth $608 in 1998,
because prices increased 508.2% over that period, an average of
4.29% a year.
$100 in 1955 has
the same buying power as
$608
in 1998
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
508.2%
Average inflation rate
4.29% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$608
Price difference ($100 base)
$508
CPI in 1955
26.8
CPI in 1998
163
Inflation in 1955
-0.37%
Inflation in 1998
1.56%
$100 in 1955 → 1998
$608
$100 in 1998 → 1955
$16.44
What happened to prices between 1955 and 1998
Between 1955 and 1998, the Consumer Price Index went from 26.8 to 163.
Cumulatively, prices increased 508.2%, which works out to an average of
4.29% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1955 bought what
$0.16 buys in 1998: the 1955 dollar
lost 83.6% of its purchasing power over
these 43 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 1998 at the same ratio, 6.08: $1,000 becomes
$6,082, and $10,000 becomes $60,821.
Amount in 1955
Value in 1998
$1.00
$6.08
$5.00
$30.41
$10.00
$60.82
$20.00
$122
$50.00
$304
$100
$608
$500
$3,041
$1,000
$6,082
$5,000
$30,410
$10,000
$60,821
$100,000
$608,209
$1,000,000
$6,082,090
Inflation by spending category, 1955–1998
Between 1955 and 1998, medical care rose the most, up 1230.2%, while apparel rose the least, up 210.0%, against 508.2% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1955
spending costs in 1998, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1955 →
All items (CPI-U)
4.29%
$608
Medical care
6.20%
$1,330
Food
4.16%
$578
Transportation
4.04%
$549
Apparel
2.67%
$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 1998
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 1955–1998 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
1990–1998
2.80%
24.7%
$608
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1955
$100 from 1955 had already become $226 by
1977, on its way to $608 in 1998; 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: 1998
In 1998, prices rose 1.6% and $100 from 1955 had the buying
power of $608; the year's average CPI of 163 is the level
behind every 1998 figure on this page.
The median household earned about $38,900 in 1998, gas averaged just $1.06 a gallon, its
cheapest of the decade, and a new home cost roughly $152,500. Inflation ran at 1.6% for the
year, the lowest of the 1990s, as a glut of crude oil, worsened by weak demand from Asia’s
slowdown, pushed prices below $11 a barrel by December and pulled pump prices down with them.
The calm at home came alongside real turmoil abroad: in August, Russia devalued the ruble and
defaulted on its domestic debt, rattling markets already unsettled by the Asian financial
crisis, and in September the hedge fund Long-Term Capital Management collapsed after its highly
leveraged bets went bad, prompting the Federal Reserve to organize a private-sector bailout by
more than a dozen banks to prevent a disorderly unwinding of its roughly $100 billion in
positions. The Fed also cut interest rates three times that fall, in September, October, and
November, an insurance policy against the global financial turmoil spreading to the U.S.
economy. Cheap oil and a well-timed set of rate cuts left 1998 as a year the U.S. economy
absorbed two foreign financial crises without much of a dent at home.
MLA: “Inflation from 1955 to 1998: $100 is worth $608 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1955-to-1998/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1955 to 1998. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1955-to-1998/