$100 in 1955 is worth $803 in 2008,
because prices increased 703.4% over that period, an average of
4.01% a year.
$100 in 1955 has
the same buying power as
$803
in 2008
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
703.4%
Average inflation rate
4.01% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$803
Price difference ($100 base)
$703
CPI in 1955
26.8
CPI in 2008
215.303
Inflation in 1955
-0.37%
Inflation in 2008
3.84%
$100 in 1955 → 2008
$803
$100 in 2008 → 1955
$12.45
What happened to prices between 1955 and 2008
Between 1955 and 2008, the Consumer Price Index went from 26.8 to 215.303.
Cumulatively, prices increased 703.4%, which works out to an average of
4.01% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1955 bought what
$0.12 buys in 2008: the 1955 dollar
lost 87.6% of its purchasing power over
these 53 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 2008 at the same ratio, 8.03: $1,000 becomes
$8,034, and $10,000 becomes $80,337.
Amount in 1955
Value in 2008
$1.00
$8.03
$5.00
$40.17
$10.00
$80.34
$20.00
$161
$50.00
$402
$100
$803
$500
$4,017
$1,000
$8,034
$5,000
$40,168
$10,000
$80,337
$100,000
$803,369
$1,000,000
$8,033,694
Inflation by spending category, 1955–2008
Between 1955 and 2008, medical care rose the most, up 1900.4%, while apparel rose the least, up 177.2%, against 703.4% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1955
spending costs in 2008, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1955 →
All items (CPI-U)
4.01%
$803
Medical care
5.82%
$2,000
Food
3.93%
$770
Transportation
3.90%
$758
Apparel
1.94%
$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 2008
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 1955–2008 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
2000–2008
2.83%
25.0%
$803
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1955
$100 from 1955 had already become $339 by
1981, on its way to $803 in 2008; 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: 2008
In 2008, prices rose 3.8% and $100 from 1955 had the buying
power of $803; the year's average CPI of 215.303 is the level
behind every 2008 figure on this page.
Inflation averaged 3.8% in 2008, but that figure hides a swing. The 12-month rate reached 5.6% in
July, when oil hit $147 a barrel and gasoline passed $4 a gallon, then fell to 0.1% by December
as crude dropped near $40. For the year, gas averaged $3.27, the highest yet. The financial
system broke in the fall: Lehman Brothers filed for bankruptcy on September 15, Congress
created the $700 billion TARP bank rescue on October 3, and the Federal Reserve cut its policy
rate to a range of 0–0.25% in December. The median household earned about $50,300, barely
above 2007, and the median new home price fell to $232,100. The minimum wage rose to $6.55 in
July, and a first-class stamp cost 42 cents. The price collapse at the end of 2008 set up the
deflation of 2009.
MLA: “Inflation from 1955 to 2008: $100 is worth $803 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1955-to-2008/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1955 to 2008. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1955-to-2008/