$100 in 1955 is worth $774 in 2007,
because prices increased 673.7% over that period, an average of
4.01% a year.
$100 in 1955 has
the same buying power as
$774
in 2007
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
673.7%
Average inflation rate
4.01% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$774
Price difference ($100 base)
$674
CPI in 1955
26.8
CPI in 2007
207.342
Inflation in 1955
-0.37%
Inflation in 2007
2.85%
$100 in 1955 → 2007
$774
$100 in 2007 → 1955
$12.93
What happened to prices between 1955 and 2007
Between 1955 and 2007, the Consumer Price Index went from 26.8 to 207.342.
Cumulatively, prices increased 673.7%, which works out to an average of
4.01% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1955 bought what
$0.13 buys in 2007: the 1955 dollar
lost 87.1% of its purchasing power over
these 52 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 2007 at the same ratio, 7.74: $1,000 becomes
$7,737, and $10,000 becomes $77,366.
Amount in 1955
Value in 2007
$1.00
$7.74
$5.00
$38.68
$10.00
$77.37
$20.00
$155
$50.00
$387
$100
$774
$500
$3,868
$1,000
$7,737
$5,000
$38,683
$10,000
$77,366
$100,000
$773,664
$1,000,000
$7,736,642
Inflation by spending category, 1955–2007
Between 1955 and 2007, medical care rose the most, up 1828.9%, while apparel rose the least, up 177.4%, against 673.7% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1955
spending costs in 2007, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1955 →
All items (CPI-U)
4.01%
$774
Medical care
5.86%
$1,929
Food
3.90%
$730
Transportation
3.86%
$716
Apparel
1.98%
$277
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 2007
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 1955–2007 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
2000–2007
2.69%
20.4%
$774
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1955
$100 from 1955 had already become $339 by
1981, on its way to $774 in 2007; 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: 2007
In 2007, prices rose 2.8% and $100 from 1955 had the buying
power of $774; the year's average CPI of 207.342 is the level
behind every 2007 figure on this page.
Inflation was 2.8% in 2007, with gasoline averaging $2.80 a gallon, but the year is better
known for what began underneath prices. In August, French bank BNP Paribas froze funds tied to
U.S. subprime mortgages, and credit between banks tightened. The Federal Reserve responded with
a half-point cut on September 18, its first in four years, and took the policy rate from 5.25% to
4.25% by December. The economy peaked that month, by the National Bureau of Economic Research’s
dating, and the Great Recession followed. The median household earned about $50,200, and the
median new home cost $247,900. Congress ended the decade-long freeze on the federal minimum wage
in May, with the first of three steps to $5.85 in July. A first-class stamp cost 41 cents.
MLA: “Inflation from 1955 to 2007: $100 is worth $774 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1955-to-2007/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1955 to 2007. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1955-to-2007/