$100 in 1955 is worth $661 in 2001,
because prices increased 560.8% over that period, an average of
4.19% a year.
$100 in 1955 has
the same buying power as
$661
in 2001
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
560.8%
Average inflation rate
4.19% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$661
Price difference ($100 base)
$561
CPI in 1955
26.8
CPI in 2001
177.1
Inflation in 1955
-0.37%
Inflation in 2001
2.85%
$100 in 1955 → 2001
$661
$100 in 2001 → 1955
$15.13
What happened to prices between 1955 and 2001
Between 1955 and 2001, the Consumer Price Index went from 26.8 to 177.1.
Cumulatively, prices increased 560.8%, which works out to an average of
4.19% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1955 bought what
$0.15 buys in 2001: the 1955 dollar
lost 84.9% of its purchasing power over
these 46 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 2001 at the same ratio, 6.61: $1,000 becomes
$6,608, and $10,000 becomes $66,082.
Amount in 1955
Value in 2001
$1.00
$6.61
$5.00
$33.04
$10.00
$66.08
$20.00
$132
$50.00
$330
$100
$661
$500
$3,304
$1,000
$6,608
$5,000
$33,041
$10,000
$66,082
$100,000
$660,821
$1,000,000
$6,608,209
Inflation by spending category, 1955–2001
Between 1955 and 2001, medical care rose the most, up 1398.9%, while apparel rose the least, up 196.7%, against 560.8% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1955
spending costs in 2001, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1955 →
All items (CPI-U)
4.19%
$661
Medical care
6.06%
$1,499
Food
4.06%
$623
Transportation
3.96%
$598
Apparel
2.39%
$297
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 2001
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 1955–2001 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
1990–2000
2.80%
31.8%
$643
2000–2001
2.85%
2.8%
$661
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1955
$100 from 1955 had already become $226 by
1977, on its way to $661 in 2001; 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: 2001
In 2001, prices rose 2.8% and $100 from 1955 had the buying
power of $661; the year's average CPI of 177.1 is the level
behind every 2001 figure on this page.
Inflation fell to 2.8% in 2001 from 3.4% the year before, as a recession that began in March
cut demand and gasoline slid to an average of $1.46 a gallon. The median household earned about
$42,200, roughly flat from 2000, and a new home cost about $175,200. The Federal Reserve cut its
policy rate 11 times over the year, from 6.5% to 1.75%, the lowest since 1961. After the
September 11 attacks, U.S. stock markets closed for four trading days, and air travel dropped
sharply until the following year. Congress had already passed a $1.35 trillion tax cut in June,
which included rebate checks of up to $600. The National Bureau of Economic Research dates the
recession’s end at November, but unemployment kept rising into 2003. A first-class stamp went to
34 cents in January, and the federal minimum wage stayed at $5.15. The Fed’s cuts were the
first step in a long period of very cheap borrowing that would fuel the housing boom.
MLA: “Inflation from 1955 to 2001: $100 is worth $661 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1955-to-2001/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1955 to 2001. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1955-to-2001/