$100 in 1955 is worth $884 in 2015,
because prices increased 784.4% over that period, an average of
3.70% a year.
$100 in 1955 has
the same buying power as
$884
in 2015
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
784.4%
Average inflation rate
3.70% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$884
Price difference ($100 base)
$784
CPI in 1955
26.8
CPI in 2015
237.017
Inflation in 1955
-0.37%
Inflation in 2015
0.12%
$100 in 1955 → 2015
$884
$100 in 2015 → 1955
$11.31
What happened to prices between 1955 and 2015
Between 1955 and 2015, the Consumer Price Index went from 26.8 to 237.017.
Cumulatively, prices increased 784.4%, which works out to an average of
3.70% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1955 bought what
$0.11 buys in 2015: the 1955 dollar
lost 88.7% of its purchasing power over
these 60 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 2015 at the same ratio, 8.84: $1,000 becomes
$8,844, and $10,000 becomes $88,439.
Amount in 1955
Value in 2015
$1.00
$8.84
$5.00
$44.22
$10.00
$88.44
$20.00
$177
$50.00
$442
$100
$884
$500
$4,422
$1,000
$8,844
$5,000
$44,220
$10,000
$88,439
$100,000
$884,392
$1,000,000
$8,843,918
Inflation by spending category, 1955–2015
Between 1955 and 2015, medical care rose the most, up 2354.7%, while apparel rose the least, up 193.5%, against 784.4% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1955
spending costs in 2015, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1955 →
All items (CPI-U)
3.70%
$884
Medical care
5.48%
$2,455
Food
3.71%
$889
Transportation
3.46%
$772
Apparel
1.81%
$293
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 2015
Prices climbed fastest in the 1970s, averaging 7.82% a year, and slowest in the 2010s (1.68% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1955–2015 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
2010–2015
1.68%
8.7%
$884
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1955
$100 from 1955 had already become $401 by
1985, on its way to $884 in 2015; 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: 2015
In 2015, prices rose 0.1% and $100 from 1955 had the buying
power of $884; the year's average CPI of 237.017 is the level
behind every 2015 figure on this page.
2015 was almost a year with no inflation at all. Consumer prices rose 0.1%,
the smallest increase since the 2009 decline, because energy prices kept
falling. Gasoline averaged $2.45 a gallon, down from $3.37 in 2014, and a
strong dollar made imported goods cheaper. The picture was different outside
food and energy: core prices rose about 1.8% as rents and medical costs
climbed.
Incomes finally showed real progress. Median household income reached $56,516,
a large jump from $53,657, and the median new home sold for about $296,400. The
federal minimum wage stayed at $7.25, and a first-class stamp stayed at 49
cents.
The Federal Reserve chose December to end its zero-rate policy, raising the
target range to 0.25–0.50% for the first time since 2006. It moved even
though headline inflation was far under 2%, arguing that the drag from
energy was temporary. Earlier, a currency shift in China in August had shaken
global markets and pushed oil below $40 a barrel. Prices in 2015 ended
the year barely above their 2014 level.
MLA: “Inflation from 1955 to 2015: $100 is worth $884 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1955-to-2015/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1955 to 2015. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1955-to-2015/