$100 in 1956 is worth $163 in 1973,
because prices increased 63.2% over that period, an average of
2.92% a year.
$100 in 1956 has
the same buying power as
$163
in 1973
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
63.2%
Average inflation rate
2.92% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$163
Price difference ($100 base)
$63.24
CPI in 1956
27.2
CPI in 1973
44.4
Inflation in 1956
1.49%
Inflation in 1973
6.22%
$100 in 1956 → 1973
$163
$100 in 1973 → 1956
$61.26
What happened to prices between 1956 and 1973
Between 1956 and 1973, the Consumer Price Index went from 27.2 to 44.4.
Cumulatively, prices increased 63.2%, which works out to an average of
2.92% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1956 bought what
$0.61 buys in 1973: the 1956 dollar
lost 38.7% of its purchasing power over
these 17 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 1973 at the same ratio, 1.63: $1,000 becomes
$1,632, and $10,000 becomes $16,324.
Amount in 1956
Value in 1973
$1.00
$1.63
$5.00
$8.16
$10.00
$16.32
$20.00
$32.65
$50.00
$81.62
$100
$163
$500
$816
$1,000
$1,632
$5,000
$8,162
$10,000
$16,324
$100,000
$163,235
$1,000,000
$1,632,353
Inflation by spending category, 1956–1973
Between 1956 and 1973, medical care rose the most, up 105.3%, while apparel rose the least, up 47.8%, against 63.2% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1956
spending costs in 1973, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1956 →
All items (CPI-U)
2.92%
$163
Medical care
4.32%
$205
Food
3.25%
$172
Transportation
2.70%
$157
Apparel
2.33%
$148
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 1973
Prices climbed fastest in the 1970s, averaging 4.60% a year, and slowest in the 1950s (2.14% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1956–1973 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
1970–1973
4.60%
14.4%
$163
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1956
$100 from 1956 had already become $114 by
1964, on its way to $163 in 1973; each row shows the CPI, that
year's inflation rate, and the running value.
Within the span, inflation peaked at 6.2% in 1973, and the smallest rise was 0.7% in 1959.
In 1973, prices rose 6.2% and $100 from 1956 had the buying
power of $163; the year's average CPI of 44.4 is the level
behind every 1973 figure on this page.
Consumer prices rose 6.2% in 1973, nearly double 1972’s 3.2%,
as Nixon’s wage and price controls were phased out through the year and
pressure the controls had been holding back broke loose. The bigger shock
arrived that October, when Arab oil-producing states embargoed exports to the
United States and other supporters of Israel in the Yom Kippur War. Crude
oil, which had traded around $3 a barrel, approached $12 by early 1974, and
gas lines became a fixture outside filling stations nationwide. Earlier in
the year, the Paris Peace Accords, signed that January 27, ended direct
American combat in Vietnam and set a 60-day deadline for withdrawing
remaining U.S. troops, even as fighting between North and South Vietnam went
on. Financial markets read the year correctly as a turning point: the Dow
Jones Industrial Average peaked at 1,051.70 on January 11, a level it would
not reach again until 1980, before the oil shock and rising interest rates
dragged it into a two-year bear market. A median household earned $10,512 in
1973, a new home sold for a median $32,500, and gas averaged 38.5 cents a
gallon, still under half of what the embargo’s effects would bring the
following year. Consumer prices stood 348.5% above their
1913 level by year’s end, with the decade’s worst inflation
still ahead.
MLA: “Inflation from 1956 to 1973: $100 is worth $163 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1956-to-1973/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1956 to 1973. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1956-to-1973/