$100 in 1956 is worth $403 in 1986,
because prices increased 302.9% over that period, an average of
4.75% a year.
$100 in 1956 has
the same buying power as
$403
in 1986
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
302.9%
Average inflation rate
4.75% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$403
Price difference ($100 base)
$303
CPI in 1956
27.2
CPI in 1986
109.6
Inflation in 1956
1.49%
Inflation in 1986
1.86%
$100 in 1956 → 1986
$403
$100 in 1986 → 1956
$24.82
What happened to prices between 1956 and 1986
Between 1956 and 1986, the Consumer Price Index went from 27.2 to 109.6.
Cumulatively, prices increased 302.9%, which works out to an average of
4.75% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1956 bought what
$0.25 buys in 1986: the 1956 dollar
lost 75.2% of its purchasing power over
these 30 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 1986 at the same ratio, 4.03: $1,000 becomes
$4,029, and $10,000 becomes $40,294.
Amount in 1956
Value in 1986
$1.00
$4.03
$5.00
$20.15
$10.00
$40.29
$20.00
$80.59
$50.00
$201
$100
$403
$500
$2,015
$1,000
$4,029
$5,000
$20,147
$10,000
$40,294
$100,000
$402,941
$1,000,000
$4,029,412
Inflation by spending category, 1956–1986
Between 1956 and 1986, medical care rose the most, up 545.5%, while apparel rose the least, up 142.3%, against 302.9% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1956
spending costs in 1986, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1956 →
All items (CPI-U)
4.75%
$403
Medical care
6.41%
$646
Transportation
4.65%
$390
Food
4.63%
$389
Apparel
2.99%
$242
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 1986
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 1956–1986 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
1980–1986
4.87%
33.0%
$403
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1956
$100 from 1956 had already become $149 by
1971, on its way to $403 in 1986; 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 1986, prices rose 1.9% and $100 from 1956 had the buying
power of $403; the year's average CPI of 109.6 is the level
behind every 1986 figure on this page.
1986 delivered the decade’s biggest one-year drop in inflation, and it came
almost entirely from a single source: oil. Saudi Arabia abandoned its policy
of restraining output to prop up prices, and world crude collapsed from
about $27 a barrel to under $10 by midyear. Gasoline, which had averaged
$1.12 a gallon in 1985, fell to 86 cents. With energy costs plunging,
headline CPI inflation for the year came in at just 1.9%, the lowest annual
rate since 1965 and a striking bookend to 1980’s 13.5% peak. The relief was
uneven: prices for most goods and services outside energy kept rising at a
moderate pace, so households that didn’t drive much or heat with oil felt
less of the difference. In October, Congress passed the Tax Reform Act of
1986, a bipartisan overhaul that cut the top individual income tax rate from
50% to 28% while closing many deductions and shelters, the broadest rewrite
of the federal tax code since World War II. Between cheap gas and falling
interest rates, 1986 read like proof that the inflationary 1970s were a
closed chapter, six years after the U.S. economy had felt anything but
calm.
MLA: “Inflation from 1956 to 1986: $100 is worth $403 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1956-to-1986/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1956 to 1986. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1956-to-1986/