$100 in 1956 is worth $435 in 1988,
because prices increased 334.9% over that period, an average of
4.70% a year.
$100 in 1956 has
the same buying power as
$435
in 1988
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
334.9%
Average inflation rate
4.70% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$435
Price difference ($100 base)
$335
CPI in 1956
27.2
CPI in 1988
118.3
Inflation in 1956
1.49%
Inflation in 1988
4.14%
$100 in 1956 → 1988
$435
$100 in 1988 → 1956
$22.99
What happened to prices between 1956 and 1988
Between 1956 and 1988, the Consumer Price Index went from 27.2 to 118.3.
Cumulatively, prices increased 334.9%, which works out to an average of
4.70% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1956 bought what
$0.23 buys in 1988: the 1956 dollar
lost 77.0% of its purchasing power over
these 32 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 1988 at the same ratio, 4.35: $1,000 becomes
$4,349, and $10,000 becomes $43,493.
Amount in 1956
Value in 1988
$1.00
$4.35
$5.00
$21.75
$10.00
$43.49
$20.00
$86.99
$50.00
$217
$100
$435
$500
$2,175
$1,000
$4,349
$5,000
$21,746
$10,000
$43,493
$100,000
$434,926
$1,000,000
$4,349,265
Inflation by spending category, 1956–1988
Between 1956 and 1988, medical care rose the most, up 633.3%, while apparel rose the least, up 164.1%, against 334.9% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1956
spending costs in 1988, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1956 →
All items (CPI-U)
4.70%
$435
Medical care
6.42%
$733
Food
4.60%
$422
Transportation
4.55%
$415
Apparel
3.08%
$264
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 1988
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 1956–1988 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
1980–1988
4.62%
43.6%
$435
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1956
$100 from 1956 had already become $154 by
1972, on its way to $435 in 1988; 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: 1988
In 1988, prices rose 4.1% and $100 from 1956 had the buying
power of $435; the year's average CPI of 118.3 is the level
behind every 1988 figure on this page.
By 1988, the economic expansion that began in the ashes of the 1981-82
recession was in its sixth year, and the Federal Reserve was watching for
signs it had run too long. Inflation rose to 4.1%, up from 3.6% the year
before, while unemployment fell to its lowest level since 1974. Alan
Greenspan’s Fed responded by raising the federal funds rate through the
year, from about 6.5% to 8.5%, trying to cool demand before prices
accelerated the way they had in the 1970s. Households still felt the
difference between this expansion and the last one: gas held near 90 cents
a gallon, almost exactly its 1987 price, and median household income rose
to roughly $27,200. The one price that moved was postage, which rose from
22 to 25 cents in April, the fourth increase of the decade but a far
gentler pace than the string of increases in the late 1970s and early
1980s. In November, Vice President George H.W. Bush won the presidency on
the strength of the expansion, promising in his nomination speech to hold
the line on taxes. Both the boom and that pledge would run into trouble
within two years, as the Fed’s rate increases helped tip the economy toward
the 1990-91 recession.
MLA: “Inflation from 1956 to 1988: $100 is worth $435 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1956-to-1988/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1956 to 1988. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1956-to-1988/