$100 in 1955 is worth $883 in 2014,
because prices increased 783.3% over that period, an average of
3.76% a year.
$100 in 1955 has
the same buying power as
$883
in 2014
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
783.3%
Average inflation rate
3.76% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$883
Price difference ($100 base)
$783
CPI in 1955
26.8
CPI in 2014
236.736
Inflation in 1955
-0.37%
Inflation in 2014
1.62%
$100 in 1955 → 2014
$883
$100 in 2014 → 1955
$11.32
What happened to prices between 1955 and 2014
Between 1955 and 2014, the Consumer Price Index went from 26.8 to 236.736.
Cumulatively, prices increased 783.3%, which works out to an average of
3.76% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1955 bought what
$0.11 buys in 2014: the 1955 dollar
lost 88.7% of its purchasing power over
these 59 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 2014 at the same ratio, 8.83: $1,000 becomes
$8,833, and $10,000 becomes $88,334.
Amount in 1955
Value in 2014
$1.00
$8.83
$5.00
$44.17
$10.00
$88.33
$20.00
$177
$50.00
$442
$100
$883
$500
$4,417
$1,000
$8,833
$5,000
$44,167
$10,000
$88,334
$100,000
$883,343
$1,000,000
$8,833,433
Inflation by spending category, 1955–2014
Between 1955 and 2014, medical care rose the most, up 2291.7%, while apparel rose the least, up 197.2%, against 783.3% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1955
spending costs in 2014, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1955 →
All items (CPI-U)
3.76%
$883
Medical care
5.53%
$2,392
Food
3.74%
$873
Transportation
3.67%
$837
Apparel
1.86%
$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 2014
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 1955–2014 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
2000–2010
2.39%
26.6%
$814
2010–2014
2.08%
8.6%
$883
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1955
$100 from 1955 had already become $401 by
1985, on its way to $883 in 2014; 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 prices fell 0.4% in 2009, the deepest deflation of the period.
Long periods are sampled every 2 years; the calculator above covers any pair of years.
The destination year: 2014
In 2014, prices rose 1.6% and $100 from 1955 had the buying
power of $883; the year's average CPI of 236.736 is the level
behind every 2014 figure on this page.
2014 ended with the sharpest oil price drop in years. Consumer prices rose
1.6% for the year, close to 2013’s pace, but the annual figure hid a shift at
the pump: crude oil fell from above $100 a barrel in June to below $60 in
December, and gasoline finished the year near $2.25 a gallon after averaging
$3.37 across 2014. The drop reflected record U.S. shale output, softer
global demand, and OPEC’s decision in November to keep producing.
For households, cheaper fuel arrived just as the labor market strengthened.
Median household income was $53,657, essentially flat on the prior year, and
the median new home sold for about $288,500. The federal minimum wage stayed
at $7.25 for a fifth year, and a first-class stamp rose to 49 cents.
The Federal Reserve ended its bond purchases in October but left its policy
rate at zero. A stronger dollar helped hold down import prices. Because
energy weighs heavily in the CPI, the late-year slide carried into 2015, which
posted the smallest annual increase of the decade.
MLA: “Inflation from 1955 to 2014: $100 is worth $883 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1955-to-2014/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1955 to 2014. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1955-to-2014/