$100 in 1956 is worth $149 in 1971,
because prices increased 48.9% over that period, an average of
2.69% a year.
$100 in 1956 has
the same buying power as
$149
in 1971
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
48.9%
Average inflation rate
2.69% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$149
Price difference ($100 base)
$48.90
CPI in 1956
27.2
CPI in 1971
40.5
Inflation in 1956
1.49%
Inflation in 1971
4.38%
$100 in 1956 → 1971
$149
$100 in 1971 → 1956
$67.16
What happened to prices between 1956 and 1971
Between 1956 and 1971, the Consumer Price Index went from 27.2 to 40.5.
Cumulatively, prices increased 48.9%, which works out to an average of
2.69% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1956 bought what
$0.67 buys in 1971: the 1956 dollar
lost 32.8% of its purchasing power over
these 15 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 1971 at the same ratio, 1.49: $1,000 becomes
$1,489, and $10,000 becomes $14,890.
Amount in 1956
Value in 1971
$1.00
$1.49
$5.00
$7.44
$10.00
$14.89
$20.00
$29.78
$50.00
$74.45
$100
$149
$500
$744
$1,000
$1,489
$5,000
$7,445
$10,000
$14,890
$100,000
$148,897
$1,000,000
$1,488,971
Inflation by spending category, 1956–1971
Between 1956 and 1971, medical care rose the most, up 91.0%, while apparel rose the least, up 39.8%, against 48.9% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1956
spending costs in 1971, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1956 →
All items (CPI-U)
2.69%
$149
Medical care
4.41%
$191
Transportation
2.77%
$151
Food
2.47%
$144
Apparel
2.26%
$140
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–).
Decade by decade: 1956 to 1971
Prices climbed fastest in the 1970s, averaging 4.38% a year, and slowest in the 1950s (2.14% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1956–1971 change:
Years
Avg. yearly inflation
Price change
$100 from 1956, at end
1956–1960
2.14%
8.8%
$109
1960–1970
2.74%
31.1%
$143
1970–1971
4.38%
4.4%
$149
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1956
$100 from 1956 had already become $113 by
1963, on its way to $149 in 1971; each row shows the CPI, that
year's inflation rate, and the running value.
Within the span, inflation peaked at 5.7% in 1970, and the smallest rise was 0.7% in 1959.
In 1971, prices rose 4.4% and $100 from 1956 had the buying
power of $149; the year's average CPI of 40.5 is the level
behind every 1971 figure on this page.
Consumer prices rose 4.4% in 1971, down from 1970’s 5.7% as
the recession that started in December 1969 finally cooled demand. The bigger
economic story came that August 15, when President Nixon closed the “gold
window” that let foreign governments exchange dollars for gold, ending the
Bretton Woods system that had anchored the dollar since World War II. The
same address announced a 90-day freeze on wages and prices, the first
peacetime controls the country had seen, an attempt to break inflationary
expectations without the slower grind of tighter money. The “Nixon Shock,” as
it came to be known, let the dollar float against other currencies for the
first time and set the stage for a wage-and-price-control regime that would
run in various forms into 1973. Politically, the country lowered its voting
age that year: the 26th Amendment, ratified July 1, extended the vote to
18-year-olds, capping a campaign built on the argument that men old enough to
be drafted to Vietnam were old enough to vote for the people who sent them.
The Postal Service, independent since 1970’s reorganization, raised
first-class postage from 6 to 8 cents that May. A median household earned
$9,028 in 1971, up from $8,734 the year before, while gas held near 36 cents
a gallon and a new home sold for a median $25,200. Consumer prices stood
309.1% above their 1913 level by year’s end, still years away
from the double-digit inflation the controls were meant to prevent.
MLA: “Inflation from 1956 to 1971: $100 is worth $149 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1956-to-1971/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1956 to 1971. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1956-to-1971/