$100 in 1955 is worth $915 in 2017,
because prices increased 814.6% over that period, an average of
3.63% a year.
$100 in 1955 has
the same buying power as
$915
in 2017
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
814.6%
Average inflation rate
3.63% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$915
Price difference ($100 base)
$815
CPI in 1955
26.8
CPI in 2017
245.12
Inflation in 1955
-0.37%
Inflation in 2017
2.13%
$100 in 1955 → 2017
$915
$100 in 2017 → 1955
$10.93
What happened to prices between 1955 and 2017
Between 1955 and 2017, the Consumer Price Index went from 26.8 to 245.12.
Cumulatively, prices increased 814.6%, which works out to an average of
3.63% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1955 bought what
$0.11 buys in 2017: the 1955 dollar
lost 89.1% of its purchasing power over
these 62 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 2017 at the same ratio, 9.15: $1,000 becomes
$9,146, and $10,000 becomes $91,463.
Amount in 1955
Value in 2017
$1.00
$9.15
$5.00
$45.73
$10.00
$91.46
$20.00
$183
$50.00
$457
$100
$915
$500
$4,573
$1,000
$9,146
$5,000
$45,731
$10,000
$91,463
$100,000
$914,627
$1,000,000
$9,146,269
Inflation by spending category, 1955–2017
Between 1955 and 2017, medical care rose the most, up 2511.7%, while apparel rose the least, up 192.8%, against 814.6% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1955
spending costs in 2017, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1955 →
All items (CPI-U)
3.63%
$915
Medical care
5.40%
$2,612
Food
3.61%
$900
Transportation
3.37%
$781
Apparel
1.75%
$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 2017
Prices climbed fastest in the 1970s, averaging 7.82% a year, and slowest in the 2010s (1.69% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1955–2017 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
2010–2017
1.69%
12.4%
$915
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1955
$100 from 1955 had already become $401 by
1985, on its way to $915 in 2017; 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: 2017
In 2017, prices rose 2.1% and $100 from 1955 had the buying
power of $915; the year's average CPI of 245.12 is the level
behind every 2017 figure on this page.
2017 pushed consumer prices back above the Federal Reserve’s 2% target. The
CPI rose 2.1%, the first reading over 2% in five years, helped by a rebound
in energy after OPEC’s output cuts and by a storm-related spike at the pump:
Hurricane Harvey shut a large part of Gulf Coast refining in late August.
Gasoline averaged $2.42 a gallon, up from $2.14 in 2016.
Household incomes kept rising. The median household income reached $61,372,
and the median new home sold for about $322,100. The federal minimum wage
stayed at $7.25, its eighth year at that level, and a first-class stamp rose
to 49 cents.
The Fed raised rates three times, to 1.25–1.50%, and in October began
letting its bond holdings shrink. Congress passed the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act
in December, lowering the corporate rate to 21%. Even with unemployment near
4%, core inflation stayed under 2%, a puzzle that shaped Fed debates for the
next two years.
MLA: “Inflation from 1955 to 2017: $100 is worth $915 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1955-to-2017/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1955 to 2017. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1955-to-2017/