$100 in 1956 is worth $103 in 1957,
because prices increased 3.3% over that period, an average of
3.31% a year.
$100 in 1956 has
the same buying power as
$103
in 1957
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
3.3%
Average inflation rate
3.31% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$103
Price difference ($100 base)
$3.31
CPI in 1956
27.2
CPI in 1957
28.1
Inflation in 1956
1.49%
Inflation in 1957
3.31%
$100 in 1956 → 1957
$103
$100 in 1957 → 1956
$96.80
What happened to prices between 1956 and 1957
Between 1956 and 1957, the Consumer Price Index went from 27.2 to 28.1.
Cumulatively, prices increased 3.3%, which works out to an average of
3.31% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1956 bought what
$0.97 buys in 1957: the 1956 dollar
lost 3.2% of its purchasing power over
these 1 years.
Consumer prices rose 1.5% in 1956, a return to mild inflation after they had
fallen 0.4% in 1955, the only annual decline of the decade. The two years sat
in the calmest stretch of the postwar index, a lull between the Korean War
price surge earlier in the 1950s and the acceleration that would return in
the 1970s. Congress had already raised the wage floor into that calm: the
Fair Labor Standards Amendments of 1955, signed the previous August, took
effect March 1 and lifted the federal minimum wage from 75 cents to $1 an
hour, the first increase since 1950. Eisenhower signed a longer-lasting
commitment on June 29, the Federal-Aid Highway Act, funding 41,000 miles of
controlled-access highway at 90% federal cost to build the Interstate
System, the largest public-works program the country had undertaken. He won
a second term that November, carrying 41 states and about 57% of the
popular vote in a rematch against Adlai Stevenson. Abroad, the Suez Crisis
broke the calm on the supply side: Egypt nationalized the canal on July 26,
and after Israel invaded the Sinai on October 29 with British and French
forces following, the canal’s closure and damaged pipelines squeezed oil
shipments to Western Europe for months. Consumer prices stood 174.7% above
their 1913 level by 1956, up 94% since 1940
alone, even after a decade that had barely moved the index. First-class
postage held at 3 cents, unchanged since 1932.
Every 1956 amount converts to 1957 at the same ratio, 1.03: $1,000 becomes
$1,033, and $10,000 becomes $10,331.
Amount in 1956
Value in 1957
$1.00
$1.03
$5.00
$5.17
$10.00
$10.33
$20.00
$20.66
$50.00
$51.65
$100
$103
$500
$517
$1,000
$1,033
$5,000
$5,165
$10,000
$10,331
$100,000
$103,309
$1,000,000
$1,033,088
Inflation by spending category, 1956–1957
Between 1956 and 1957, transportation rose the most, up 5.7%, while apparel rose the least, up 1.8%, against 3.3% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1956
spending costs in 1957, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1956 →
All items (CPI-U)
3.31%
$103
Transportation
5.73%
$106
Medical care
4.23%
$104
Food
3.21%
$103
Apparel
1.83%
$102
Not shown because the BLS began these indexes after 1956: core (all items less food & energy) (1957–), energy (1957–), housing (1967–), recreation (1993–), education & communication (1993–).
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1956
$100 from 1956grew to $103 by 1957; each row
shows the CPI, that year's inflation rate, and the running value.
In 1957, prices rose 3.3% and $100 from 1956 had the buying
power of $103; the year's average CPI of 28.1 is the level
behind every 1957 figure on this page.
Consumer prices rose 3.3% in 1957, up from 1956’s 1.5% and
the sharpest increase since the Korean War price surge of 1951. The jump
fed a growing debate among economists over “cost-push” inflation, prices
climbing from rising wages and material costs rather than excess demand,
a debate that would recur for the next quarter century. The Federal
Reserve tightened policy to fight it, and by August the tighter money
combined with falling business investment to tip the economy into a
recession, according to the National Bureau of Economic Research’s
dating. The Cold War took a technological turn that October, when the
Soviet Union launched Sputnik, the first artificial satellite, on the
4th, stunning the American public and setting off both the Space Race and
a surge in federal science and defense spending the following year. Civil
rights reached a crisis that September in Little Rock, Arkansas: after
Governor Orval Faubus used the National Guard to block nine Black
students from Central High School, Eisenhower federalized the Guard and
sent the 101st Airborne Division to enforce the Supreme Court’s
desegregation order. Consumer prices finished 1957 183.8% above their
1913 level. First-class postage held at 3 cents, and the
minimum wage stood at $1.00 an hour.
MLA: “Inflation from 1956 to 1957: $100 is worth $103 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1956-to-1957/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1956 to 1957. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1956-to-1957/