$100 in 1956 is worth $382 in 1984,
because prices increased 282.0% over that period, an average of
4.90% a year.
$100 in 1956 has
the same buying power as
$382
in 1984
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
282.0%
Average inflation rate
4.90% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$382
Price difference ($100 base)
$282
CPI in 1956
27.2
CPI in 1984
103.9
Inflation in 1956
1.49%
Inflation in 1984
4.32%
$100 in 1956 → 1984
$382
$100 in 1984 → 1956
$26.18
What happened to prices between 1956 and 1984
Between 1956 and 1984, the Consumer Price Index went from 27.2 to 103.9.
Cumulatively, prices increased 282.0%, which works out to an average of
4.90% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1956 bought what
$0.26 buys in 1984: the 1956 dollar
lost 73.8% of its purchasing power over
these 28 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 1984 at the same ratio, 3.82: $1,000 becomes
$3,820, and $10,000 becomes $38,199.
Amount in 1956
Value in 1984
$1.00
$3.82
$5.00
$19.10
$10.00
$38.20
$20.00
$76.40
$50.00
$191
$100
$382
$500
$1,910
$1,000
$3,820
$5,000
$19,099
$10,000
$38,199
$100,000
$381,985
$1,000,000
$3,819,853
Inflation by spending category, 1956–1984
Between 1956 and 1984, medical care rose the most, up 465.1%, while apparel rose the least, up 133.6%, against 282.0% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1956
spending costs in 1984, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1956 →
All items (CPI-U)
4.90%
$382
Medical care
6.38%
$565
Transportation
5.04%
$396
Food
4.77%
$369
Apparel
3.08%
$234
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 1984
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 1956–1984 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
1980–1984
5.97%
26.1%
$382
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1956
$100 from 1956 had already become $143 by
1970, on its way to $382 in 1984; 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 1984, prices rose 4.3% and $100 from 1956 had the buying
power of $382; the year's average CPI of 103.9 is the level
behind every 1984 figure on this page.
1984 was the year the recovery became a boom. Real GDP grew 7.2%, the
fastest calendar-year growth since 1951, as the tax cuts passed in 1981
combined with falling interest rates and rebuilding consumer confidence.
Unemployment, which had topped 10.8% just two years earlier, fell below
7.5%. Inflation ticked up to 4.3% from 3.2% the year before, but nothing
close to a return of the 1970s wage-price spiral: the Federal Reserve under
Paul Volcker kept policy tight enough to hold the line while growth ran hot.
The strength of the expansion, branded “Morning in America” in President
Reagan’s reelection campaign, carried him to a 49-state landslide over
Walter Mondale that November, at the time the widest electoral-vote margin
in U.S. history. For households, the numbers behind the slogan were
concrete: median income rose to about $22,400, and a gallon of gas cost
$1.13, roughly what it had cost three years earlier even as wages kept
climbing. The contrast with 1980, when 13.5% inflation and interest rates
near 20% had defined the economy, could not have been sharper.
MLA: “Inflation from 1956 to 1984: $100 is worth $382 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1956-to-1984/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1956 to 1984. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1956-to-1984/