$100 in 1955 is worth $687 in 2003,
because prices increased 586.6% over that period, an average of
4.10% a year.
$100 in 1955 has
the same buying power as
$687
in 2003
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
586.6%
Average inflation rate
4.10% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$687
Price difference ($100 base)
$587
CPI in 1955
26.8
CPI in 2003
184
Inflation in 1955
-0.37%
Inflation in 2003
2.28%
$100 in 1955 → 2003
$687
$100 in 2003 → 1955
$14.57
What happened to prices between 1955 and 2003
Between 1955 and 2003, the Consumer Price Index went from 26.8 to 184.
Cumulatively, prices increased 586.6%, which works out to an average of
4.10% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1955 bought what
$0.15 buys in 2003: the 1955 dollar
lost 85.4% of its purchasing power over
these 48 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 2003 at the same ratio, 6.87: $1,000 becomes
$6,866, and $10,000 becomes $68,657.
Amount in 1955
Value in 2003
$1.00
$6.87
$5.00
$34.33
$10.00
$68.66
$20.00
$137
$50.00
$343
$100
$687
$500
$3,433
$1,000
$6,866
$5,000
$34,328
$10,000
$68,657
$100,000
$686,567
$1,000,000
$6,865,672
Inflation by spending category, 1955–2003
Between 1955 and 2003, medical care rose the most, up 1532.4%, while apparel rose the least, up 181.8%, against 586.6% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1955
spending costs in 2003, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1955 →
All items (CPI-U)
4.10%
$687
Medical care
5.99%
$1,632
Food
3.97%
$647
Transportation
3.84%
$611
Apparel
2.18%
$282
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 2003
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 1955–2003 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
2000–2003
2.23%
6.9%
$687
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1955
$100 from 1955 had already become $271 by
1979, on its way to $687 in 2003; 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: 2003
In 2003, prices rose 2.3% and $100 from 1955 had the buying
power of $687; the year's average CPI of 184 is the level
behind every 2003 figure on this page.
Inflation was 2.3% in 2003, up from 1.6% in 2002, as gasoline climbed from $1.36 to $1.59 a
gallon around the March invasion of Iraq. Even so, the Federal Reserve spent the year worried
about prices being too low: on June 25 it cut its policy rate to 1.0%, the lowest since 1958,
and said the risk of deflation, though small, deserved a response. The median household earned
about $43,300 and a new home cost roughly $195,000. Congress passed a second round of tax cuts
in May, and the economy grew faster in the second half of the year than at any point since
1999. Hiring lagged the recovery, and unemployment peaked at 6.3% in June. A first-class stamp
stayed at 37 cents and the federal minimum wage at $5.15.
MLA: “Inflation from 1955 to 2003: $100 is worth $687 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1955-to-2003/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1955 to 2003. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1955-to-2003/