$100 in 1956 is worth $198 in 1975,
because prices increased 97.8% over that period, an average of
3.65% a year.
$100 in 1956 has
the same buying power as
$198
in 1975
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
97.8%
Average inflation rate
3.65% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$198
Price difference ($100 base)
$97.79
CPI in 1956
27.2
CPI in 1975
53.8
Inflation in 1956
1.49%
Inflation in 1975
9.13%
$100 in 1956 → 1975
$198
$100 in 1975 → 1956
$50.56
What happened to prices between 1956 and 1975
Between 1956 and 1975, the Consumer Price Index went from 27.2 to 53.8.
Cumulatively, prices increased 97.8%, which works out to an average of
3.65% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1956 bought what
$0.51 buys in 1975: the 1956 dollar
lost 49.4% of its purchasing power over
these 19 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 1975 at the same ratio, 1.98: $1,000 becomes
$1,978, and $10,000 becomes $19,779.
Amount in 1956
Value in 1975
$1.00
$1.98
$5.00
$9.89
$10.00
$19.78
$20.00
$39.56
$50.00
$98.90
$100
$198
$500
$989
$1,000
$1,978
$5,000
$9,890
$10,000
$19,779
$100,000
$197,794
$1,000,000
$1,977,941
Inflation by spending category, 1956–1975
Between 1956 and 1975, medical care rose the most, up 151.3%, while apparel rose the least, up 65.9%, against 97.8% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1956
spending costs in 1975, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1956 →
All items (CPI-U)
3.65%
$198
Medical care
4.97%
$251
Food
4.07%
$214
Transportation
3.47%
$191
Apparel
2.70%
$166
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 1975
Prices climbed fastest in the 1970s, averaging 6.76% a year, and slowest in the 1950s (2.14% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1956–1975 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
1970–1975
6.76%
38.7%
$198
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1956
$100 from 1956 had already become $116 by
1965, on its way to $198 in 1975; each row shows the CPI, that
year's inflation rate, and the running value.
Within the span, inflation peaked at 11.0% in 1974, and the smallest rise was 0.7% in 1959.
In 1975, prices rose 9.1% and $100 from 1956 had the buying
power of $198; the year's average CPI of 53.8 is the level
behind every 1975 figure on this page.
Consumer prices rose 9.1% in 1975, easing slightly from 1974’s
11.0% but still running far above anything the country had experienced before
the decade began. The recession that started in November 1973, the deepest
since the Great Depression, bottomed out that March, yet unemployment kept
climbing through the year and touched 9%, a combination of high inflation and
high joblessness that had no precedent in the postwar data. Vietnam ended
that April 30, when North Vietnamese forces captured Saigon and the last
Americans were evacuated by helicopter from the U.S. embassy roof. Fiscal
strain hit closer to home too: New York City, facing bankruptcy after years
of borrowing to paper over budget gaps, asked Washington for help that
October. President Ford’s initial refusal produced the Daily News headline
“Ford to City: Drop Dead,” though he ultimately signed a federal loan package
that December. Amid the gloom, Bill Gates and Paul Allen founded Microsoft
that April in Albuquerque, New Mexico, to sell a version of the BASIC
programming language for the Altair 8800, one of the first personal
computers sold to hobbyists. A median household earned $11,800 in 1975, a new
home sold for a median $39,300, and first-class postage held at 10 cents,
unchanged since 1974’s increase. Consumer prices stood 443.4%
above their 1913 level, with the decade barely past its
midpoint.
MLA: “Inflation from 1956 to 1975: $100 is worth $198 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1956-to-1975/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1956 to 1975. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1956-to-1975/