$100 in 1956 is worth $106 in 1958,
because prices increased 6.3% over that period, an average of
3.08% a year.
$100 in 1956 has
the same buying power as
$106
in 1958
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
6.3%
Average inflation rate
3.08% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$106
Price difference ($100 base)
$6.25
CPI in 1956
27.2
CPI in 1958
28.9
Inflation in 1956
1.49%
Inflation in 1958
2.85%
$100 in 1956 → 1958
$106
$100 in 1958 → 1956
$94.12
What happened to prices between 1956 and 1958
Between 1956 and 1958, the Consumer Price Index went from 27.2 to 28.9.
Cumulatively, prices increased 6.3%, which works out to an average of
3.08% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1956 bought what
$0.94 buys in 1958: the 1956 dollar
lost 5.9% of its purchasing power over
these 2 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 1958 at the same ratio, 1.06: $1,000 becomes
$1,063, and $10,000 becomes $10,625.
Amount in 1956
Value in 1958
$1.00
$1.06
$5.00
$5.31
$10.00
$10.63
$20.00
$21.25
$50.00
$53.13
$100
$106
$500
$531
$1,000
$1,063
$5,000
$5,313
$10,000
$10,625
$100,000
$106,250
$1,000,000
$1,062,500
Inflation by spending category, 1956–1958
Between 1956 and 1958, transportation rose the most, up 9.2%, while apparel rose the least, up 2.1%, against 6.3% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1956
spending costs in 1958, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1956 →
All items (CPI-U)
3.08%
$106
Transportation
4.48%
$109
Medical care
4.40%
$109
Food
3.85%
$108
Apparel
1.02%
$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 1956 had already become $103 by
1957, on its way to $106 in 1958; each row shows the CPI, that
year's inflation rate, and the running value.
Within the span, inflation peaked at 3.3% in 1957, and the smallest rise was 2.8% in 1958.
In 1958, prices rose 2.8% and $100 from 1956 had the buying
power of $106; the year's average CPI of 28.9 is the level
behind every 1958 figure on this page.
Consumer prices rose 2.8% in 1958, down only slightly from
1957’s 3.3% even as the country sank into the sharpest
postwar recession to that point, an early sign that inflation and a
shrinking economy could coexist rather than trade off against each other.
The National Bureau of Economic Research dates the downturn’s trough to
that April, with unemployment peaking near 7.5% that summer, the worst
reading since the 1930s. The Post Office raised first-class postage to 4
cents that August 1, up from 3 cents, the rate’s first change since 1932.
Washington answered the Soviet Union’s technological lead that summer
too: Eisenhower signed the National Aeronautics and Space Act on July 29,
establishing NASA, which opened for business that October 1 to compete
with the Soviet space program after the shock of Sputnik the year before.
Consumer prices finished 1958 191.9% above their 1913
level. The minimum wage held at $1.00 an hour, and first-class postage
rose to 4 cents that August, the first increase since 1932.
MLA: “Inflation from 1956 to 1958: $100 is worth $106 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1956-to-1958/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1956 to 1958. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1956-to-1958/