$100 in 1956 is worth $418 in 1987,
because prices increased 317.6% over that period, an average of
4.72% a year.
$100 in 1956 has
the same buying power as
$418
in 1987
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
317.6%
Average inflation rate
4.72% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$418
Price difference ($100 base)
$318
CPI in 1956
27.2
CPI in 1987
113.6
Inflation in 1956
1.49%
Inflation in 1987
3.65%
$100 in 1956 → 1987
$418
$100 in 1987 → 1956
$23.94
What happened to prices between 1956 and 1987
Between 1956 and 1987, the Consumer Price Index went from 27.2 to 113.6.
Cumulatively, prices increased 317.6%, which works out to an average of
4.72% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1956 bought what
$0.24 buys in 1987: the 1956 dollar
lost 76.1% of its purchasing power over
these 31 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 1987 at the same ratio, 4.18: $1,000 becomes
$4,176, and $10,000 becomes $41,765.
Amount in 1956
Value in 1987
$1.00
$4.18
$5.00
$20.88
$10.00
$41.76
$20.00
$83.53
$50.00
$209
$100
$418
$500
$2,088
$1,000
$4,176
$5,000
$20,882
$10,000
$41,765
$100,000
$417,647
$1,000,000
$4,176,471
Inflation by spending category, 1956–1987
Between 1956 and 1987, medical care rose the most, up 588.4%, while apparel rose the least, up 153.1%, against 317.6% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1956
spending costs in 1987, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1956 →
All items (CPI-U)
4.72%
$418
Medical care
6.42%
$688
Food
4.62%
$405
Transportation
4.59%
$402
Apparel
3.04%
$253
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 1987
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 1956–1987 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
1980–1987
4.69%
37.9%
$418
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1956
$100 from 1956 had already become $154 by
1972, on its way to $418 in 1987; 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.
Long periods are sampled every 2 years; the calculator above covers any pair of years.
The destination year: 1987
In 1987, prices rose 3.6% and $100 from 1956 had the buying
power of $418; the year's average CPI of 113.6 is the level
behind every 1987 figure on this page.
1987 tested whether the disinflation of the 1980s could survive its first
real shock. Paul Volcker, who had run the Federal Reserve since 1979 and
driven inflation down from 13.5% to routine mid-single digits, handed the
chairmanship to Alan Greenspan in August. Inflation for the year came in at
3.6%, edging up as the expansion entered its fifth year and a weaker
dollar, following 1985’s Plaza Accord, pushed up the price of imported
goods. Then, on October 19, the stock market delivered Greenspan’s first
crisis: the Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 22.6% in a single session,
still the largest one-day percentage drop in its history, as computer-driven
“portfolio insurance” trading amplified a global sell-off that had started
days earlier. The Fed responded within 24 hours, publicly pledging to
supply whatever liquidity the banking system needed, and the panic did not
spread to the broader economy. Growth continued and unemployment kept
falling through the rest of the year. It was an early demonstration of what
became known as the “Greenspan put,” a Fed willing to move fast and loosen
policy to contain financial shocks even while still watching inflation,
that shaped central banking for the next two decades.
MLA: “Inflation from 1956 to 1987: $100 is worth $418 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1956-to-1987/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1956 to 1987. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1956-to-1987/