$100 in 1955 is worth $896 in 2016,
because prices increased 795.5% over that period, an average of
3.66% a year.
$100 in 1955 has
the same buying power as
$896
in 2016
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
795.5%
Average inflation rate
3.66% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$896
Price difference ($100 base)
$796
CPI in 1955
26.8
CPI in 2016
240.007
Inflation in 1955
-0.37%
Inflation in 2016
1.26%
$100 in 1955 → 2016
$896
$100 in 2016 → 1955
$11.17
What happened to prices between 1955 and 2016
Between 1955 and 2016, the Consumer Price Index went from 26.8 to 240.007.
Cumulatively, prices increased 795.5%, which works out to an average of
3.66% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1955 bought what
$0.11 buys in 2016: the 1955 dollar
lost 88.8% of its purchasing power over
these 61 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 2016 at the same ratio, 8.96: $1,000 becomes
$8,955, and $10,000 becomes $89,555.
Amount in 1955
Value in 2016
$1.00
$8.96
$5.00
$44.78
$10.00
$89.55
$20.00
$179
$50.00
$448
$100
$896
$500
$4,478
$1,000
$8,955
$5,000
$44,777
$10,000
$89,555
$100,000
$895,549
$1,000,000
$8,955,485
Inflation by spending category, 1955–2016
Between 1955 and 2016, medical care rose the most, up 2447.7%, while apparel rose the least, up 193.8%, against 795.5% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1955
spending costs in 2016, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1955 →
All items (CPI-U)
3.66%
$896
Medical care
5.45%
$2,548
Food
3.65%
$892
Transportation
3.37%
$755
Apparel
1.78%
$294
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 2016
Prices climbed fastest in the 1970s, averaging 7.82% a year, and slowest in the 2010s (1.61% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1955–2016 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
2010–2016
1.61%
10.1%
$896
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1955
$100 from 1955 had already become $401 by
1985, on its way to $896 in 2016; 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 5 years; the calculator above covers any pair of years.
The destination year: 2016
In 2016, prices rose 1.3% and $100 from 1955 had the buying
power of $896; the year's average CPI of 240.007 is the level
behind every 2016 figure on this page.
2016 opened with the cheapest oil in more than a decade and closed with a
change in political direction. Crude fell to about $26 a barrel in February,
and gasoline averaged $2.14 a gallon for the year, its lowest annual
average since 2004. Headline inflation was 1.3%, a modest rebound from 2015’s
0.1%, though prices excluding food and energy rose faster, driven by rents and
health care.
Median household income rose to $59,039, the second large gain in a row, and
the median new home sold for about $307,800. The federal minimum wage held at
$7.25, and a first-class stamp fell to 47 cents after a January rate cut, a
rare decrease.
Two votes changed the outlook. Britain’s June decision to leave the European
Union unsettled currency markets, and the U.S. election in November raised
expectations of tax cuts, deficits, and faster growth, sending long-term
interest rates higher. OPEC’s November output cut ended the oil slump, and the
Federal Reserve made its second rate increase in December, to 0.50–0.75%.
MLA: “Inflation from 1955 to 2016: $100 is worth $896 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1955-to-2016/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1955 to 2016. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1955-to-2016/