$100 in 1955 is worth $671 in 2002,
because prices increased 571.3% over that period, an average of
4.13% a year.
$100 in 1955 has
the same buying power as
$671
in 2002
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
571.3%
Average inflation rate
4.13% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$671
Price difference ($100 base)
$571
CPI in 1955
26.8
CPI in 2002
179.9
Inflation in 1955
-0.37%
Inflation in 2002
1.58%
$100 in 1955 → 2002
$671
$100 in 2002 → 1955
$14.90
What happened to prices between 1955 and 2002
Between 1955 and 2002, the Consumer Price Index went from 26.8 to 179.9.
Cumulatively, prices increased 571.3%, which works out to an average of
4.13% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1955 bought what
$0.15 buys in 2002: the 1955 dollar
lost 85.1% of its purchasing power over
these 47 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 2002 at the same ratio, 6.71: $1,000 becomes
$6,713, and $10,000 becomes $67,127.
Amount in 1955
Value in 2002
$1.00
$6.71
$5.00
$33.56
$10.00
$67.13
$20.00
$134
$50.00
$336
$100
$671
$500
$3,356
$1,000
$6,713
$5,000
$33,563
$10,000
$67,127
$100,000
$671,269
$1,000,000
$6,712,687
Inflation by spending category, 1955–2002
Between 1955 and 2002, medical care rose the most, up 1469.2%, while apparel rose the least, up 189.0%, against 571.3% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1955
spending costs in 2002, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1955 →
All items (CPI-U)
4.13%
$671
Medical care
6.03%
$1,569
Food
4.01%
$634
Transportation
3.86%
$593
Apparel
2.28%
$289
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 2002
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 1955–2002 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
2000–2002
2.21%
4.5%
$671
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1955
$100 from 1955 had already become $271 by
1979, on its way to $671 in 2002; 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: 2002
In 2002, prices rose 1.6% and $100 from 1955 had the buying
power of $671; the year's average CPI of 179.9 is the level
behind every 2002 figure on this page.
The CPI rose 1.6% in 2002, the lowest annual rate of the decade so far, with gasoline down to an
average of $1.36 a gallon and slack in the labor market keeping wage pressure low. The median
household earned about $42,400, and a new home cost roughly $187,600, an increase of about 7%
from the year before as low mortgage rates began to lift housing. The Federal Reserve cut its
policy rate to 1.25% in November. Stocks were moving the other way: after the Enron and WorldCom
scandals, the S&P 500 hit its bear-market low on October 9, about 49% below its March 2000
peak, and Congress passed the Sarbanes-Oxley Act in July to tighten corporate accounting rules.
On January 1, euro banknotes and coins replaced national currencies in 12 European countries. A
first-class stamp rose to 37 cents in June, and the federal minimum wage stayed at $5.15.
MLA: “Inflation from 1955 to 2002: $100 is worth $671 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1955-to-2002/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1955 to 2002. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1955-to-2002/