$100 in 1955 is worth $954 in 2019,
because prices increased 853.9% over that period, an average of
3.59% a year.
$100 in 1955 has
the same buying power as
$954
in 2019
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
853.9%
Average inflation rate
3.59% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$954
Price difference ($100 base)
$854
CPI in 1955
26.8
CPI in 2019
255.657
Inflation in 1955
-0.37%
Inflation in 2019
1.81%
$100 in 1955 → 2019
$954
$100 in 2019 → 1955
$10.48
What happened to prices between 1955 and 2019
Between 1955 and 2019, the Consumer Price Index went from 26.8 to 255.657.
Cumulatively, prices increased 853.9%, which works out to an average of
3.59% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1955 bought what
$0.10 buys in 2019: the 1955 dollar
lost 89.5% of its purchasing power over
these 64 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 2019 at the same ratio, 9.54: $1,000 becomes
$9,539, and $10,000 becomes $95,394.
Amount in 1955
Value in 2019
$1.00
$9.54
$5.00
$47.70
$10.00
$95.39
$20.00
$191
$50.00
$477
$100
$954
$500
$4,770
$1,000
$9,539
$5,000
$47,697
$10,000
$95,394
$100,000
$953,944
$1,000,000
$9,539,440
Inflation by spending category, 1955–2019
Between 1955 and 2019, medical care rose the most, up 2638.5%, while apparel rose the least, up 189.2%, against 853.9% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1955
spending costs in 2019, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1955 →
All items (CPI-U)
3.59%
$954
Medical care
5.31%
$2,739
Food
3.54%
$929
Transportation
3.33%
$814
Apparel
1.67%
$289
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 2019
Prices climbed fastest in the 1970s, averaging 7.82% a year, and slowest in the 2010s (1.78% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1955–2019 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
2010–2019
1.78%
17.2%
$954
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1955
$100 from 1955 had already become $401 by
1985, on its way to $954 in 2019; 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: 2019
In 2019, prices rose 1.8% and $100 from 1955 had the buying
power of $954; the year's average CPI of 255.657 is the level
behind every 2019 figure on this page.
2019 was the last ordinary year before COVID-19. Consumer prices rose 1.8%,
slightly under the Federal Reserve’s 2% target, with gasoline averaging
$2.60 a gallon. Median household income jumped to $68,703, the highest on
record up to that point, and the median new home sold for about $328,000. A
first-class stamp rose to 55 cents.
The Fed reversed course. After four increases in 2018, it cut rates three
times, to 1.50–1.75%, citing slower global growth, trade tensions, and low
inflation. In July the expansion that began in June 2009 became the longest in
U.S. records, and in August the yield curve briefly inverted, a signal
investors read as a recession warning.
For workers at the bottom of the pay scale, 2019 marked a milestone of a
different kind. The federal minimum wage stayed at $7.25 and reached its tenth
year without an increase, the longest gap since the wage was first set. Because
prices had climbed about 19% since it was last raised in 2009, its buying power
was lower than at any point in that span.
MLA: “Inflation from 1955 to 2019: $100 is worth $954 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1955-to-2019/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1955 to 2019. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1955-to-2019/