$100 in 1956 is worth $366 in 1983,
because prices increased 266.2% over that period, an average of
4.92% a year.
$100 in 1956 has
the same buying power as
$366
in 1983
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
266.2%
Average inflation rate
4.92% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$366
Price difference ($100 base)
$266
CPI in 1956
27.2
CPI in 1983
99.6
Inflation in 1956
1.49%
Inflation in 1983
3.21%
$100 in 1956 → 1983
$366
$100 in 1983 → 1956
$27.31
What happened to prices between 1956 and 1983
Between 1956 and 1983, the Consumer Price Index went from 27.2 to 99.6.
Cumulatively, prices increased 266.2%, which works out to an average of
4.92% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1956 bought what
$0.27 buys in 1983: the 1956 dollar
lost 72.7% of its purchasing power over
these 27 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 1983 at the same ratio, 3.66: $1,000 becomes
$3,662, and $10,000 becomes $36,618.
Amount in 1956
Value in 1983
$1.00
$3.66
$5.00
$18.31
$10.00
$36.62
$20.00
$73.24
$50.00
$183
$100
$366
$500
$1,831
$1,000
$3,662
$5,000
$18,309
$10,000
$36,618
$100,000
$366,176
$1,000,000
$3,661,765
Inflation by spending category, 1956–1983
Between 1956 and 1983, medical care rose the most, up 432.3%, while apparel rose the least, up 129.3%, against 266.2% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1956
spending costs in 1983, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1956 →
All items (CPI-U)
4.92%
$366
Medical care
6.39%
$532
Transportation
5.06%
$379
Food
4.80%
$355
Apparel
3.12%
$229
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 1983
Prices climbed fastest in the 1970s, averaging 7.82% a year, and slowest in the 1950s (2.14% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1956–1983 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
1970–1980
7.82%
112.4%
$303
1980–1983
6.52%
20.9%
$366
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1956
$100 from 1956 had already become $135 by
1969, on its way to $366 in 1983; each row shows the CPI, that
year's inflation rate, and the running value.
Within the span, inflation peaked at 13.5% in 1980, and the smallest rise was 0.7% in 1959.
In 1983, prices rose 3.2% and $100 from 1956 had the buying
power of $366; the year's average CPI of 99.6 is the level
behind every 1983 figure on this page.
1983 confirmed that the Volcker disinflation was not a one-year fluke.
Consumer prices rose 3.2% for the year, nearly identical to 1982’s pace and a
fraction of the double-digit rates of 1980 and 1981. With inflation tamed and
interest rates coming down, the economy roared back from the 1981-82
recession: real GDP grew 4.6%, the strongest calendar-year growth since the
1950s, and unemployment fell from its 10.8% peak to 8.3% by December. Housing
and auto sales, both starved of credit during the recession, led the
rebound. In April, Congress and President Reagan enacted the Social Security
Amendments of 1983, a bipartisan rescue of a system projected to run out of
money within months. The law gradually raised the full retirement age from
65 to 67, began taxing benefits for higher-income retirees, and delayed that
year’s cost-of-living adjustment by six months. For a program whose benefits
had been indexed to the CPI since 1975, the amendments were the first major
sign that inflation-proofing Social Security carried a cost Congress could
not simply legislate away. By year’s end, gas averaged $1.16 a gallon and
mailing a letter still cost 20 cents, prices that had barely moved since
1981, a sharp break from the constant increases of the previous decade.
MLA: “Inflation from 1956 to 1983: $100 is worth $366 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1956-to-1983/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1956 to 1983. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1956-to-1983/