$100 in 1955 is worth $1,137 in 2023,
because prices increased 1036.9% over that period, an average of
3.64% a year.
$100 in 1955 has
the same buying power as
$1,137
in 2023
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
1036.9%
Average inflation rate
3.64% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$1,137
Price difference ($100 base)
$1,037
CPI in 1955
26.8
CPI in 2023
304.702
Inflation in 1955
-0.37%
Inflation in 2023
4.12%
$100 in 1955 → 2023
$1,137
$100 in 2023 → 1955
$8.80
What happened to prices between 1955 and 2023
Between 1955 and 2023, the Consumer Price Index went from 26.8 to 304.702.
Cumulatively, prices increased 1036.9%, which works out to an average of
3.64% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1955 bought what
$0.09 buys in 2023: the 1955 dollar
lost 91.2% of its purchasing power over
these 68 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 2023 at the same ratio, 11.37: $1,000 becomes
$11,369, and $10,000 becomes $113,695.
Amount in 1955
Value in 2023
$1.00
$11.37
$5.00
$56.85
$10.00
$114
$20.00
$227
$50.00
$568
$100
$1,137
$500
$5,685
$1,000
$11,369
$5,000
$56,847
$10,000
$113,695
$100,000
$1,136,948
$1,000,000
$11,369,478
Inflation by spending category, 1955–2023
Between 1955 and 2023, medical care rose the most, up 2916.9%, while apparel rose the least, up 204.4%, against 1036.9% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1955
spending costs in 2023, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1955 →
All items (CPI-U)
3.64%
$1,137
Medical care
5.14%
$3,017
Food
3.67%
$1,162
Transportation
3.50%
$1,035
Apparel
1.65%
$304
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 2023
Prices climbed fastest in the 1970s, averaging 7.82% a year, and slowest in the 2010s (1.73% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1955–2023 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
2010–2020
1.73%
18.7%
$966
2020–2023
5.59%
17.7%
$1,137
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1955
$100 from 1955 had already become $488 by
1990, on its way to $1,137 in 2023; 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: 2023
In 2023, prices rose 4.1% and $100 from 1955 had the buying
power of $1,137; the year's average CPI of 304.702 is the level
behind every 2023 figure on this page.
2023 was the year inflation came down without a recession. Consumer prices
rose 4.1% on average, roughly half of 2022’s 8.0%, and the December-to-December
rate fell to 3.4%. Gasoline averaged $3.52 a gallon, well below the 2022
average, and supply-chain pressure on goods eased. Shelter, restaurant meals,
and other services stayed expensive, so the CPI kept rising at a rate well
above the pre-pandemic pace.
The Federal Reserve completed its rate-hiking campaign in July, taking the
policy rate to 5.25–5.50%, the highest level in 22 years. The effects showed
up in banking: Silicon Valley Bank failed in March after rate increases eroded
the value of its bond portfolio, the second-largest bank failure in U.S.
history at the time. Despite that, unemployment stayed under 4% all year.
Median household income was $80,610 according to the Census Bureau. The
federal minimum wage stayed at $7.25, and a first-class stamp rose to 66 cents
in July.
MLA: “Inflation from 1955 to 2023: $100 is worth $1,137 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1955-to-2023/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1955 to 2023. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1955-to-2023/