$100 in 1956 is worth $456 in 1989,
because prices increased 355.9% over that period, an average of
4.70% a year.
$100 in 1956 has
the same buying power as
$456
in 1989
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
355.9%
Average inflation rate
4.70% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$456
Price difference ($100 base)
$356
CPI in 1956
27.2
CPI in 1989
124
Inflation in 1956
1.49%
Inflation in 1989
4.82%
$100 in 1956 → 1989
$456
$100 in 1989 → 1956
$21.94
What happened to prices between 1956 and 1989
Between 1956 and 1989, the Consumer Price Index went from 27.2 to 124.
Cumulatively, prices increased 355.9%, which works out to an average of
4.70% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1956 bought what
$0.22 buys in 1989: the 1956 dollar
lost 78.1% of its purchasing power over
these 33 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 1989 at the same ratio, 4.56: $1,000 becomes
$4,559, and $10,000 becomes $45,588.
Amount in 1956
Value in 1989
$1.00
$4.56
$5.00
$22.79
$10.00
$45.59
$20.00
$91.18
$50.00
$228
$100
$456
$500
$2,279
$1,000
$4,559
$5,000
$22,794
$10,000
$45,588
$100,000
$455,882
$1,000,000
$4,558,824
Inflation by spending category, 1956–1989
Between 1956 and 1989, medical care rose the most, up 689.9%, while apparel rose the least, up 171.4%, against 355.9% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1956
spending costs in 1989, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1956 →
All items (CPI-U)
4.70%
$456
Medical care
6.46%
$790
Food
4.64%
$447
Transportation
4.56%
$435
Apparel
3.07%
$271
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 1989
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 1956–1989 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
1980–1989
4.65%
50.5%
$456
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1956
$100 from 1956 had already become $154 by
1972, on its way to $456 in 1989; 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: 1989
In 1989, prices rose 4.8% and $100 from 1956 had the buying
power of $456; the year's average CPI of 124 is the level
behind every 1989 figure on this page.
1989 closed out a decade that began in economic crisis and ended in a long,
calmer expansion. Inflation for the year came in at 4.8%, higher than the
mid-decade lull but still roughly a third of the 13.5% peak that had opened
the decade in 1980. The federal minimum wage, unchanged at $3.35 an hour
since January 1981, had gone longer without an increase than at any point
since Congress created it, and had lost close to a third of its purchasing
power to inflation in the meantime; lawmakers would finally raise it to
$3.80 the following April. The decade’s other unfinished business came due
in August, when Congress passed FIRREA, the law that created the Resolution
Trust Corporation to seize and sell off the hundreds of savings and loan
institutions that a decade of deregulation and risky lending had left
insolvent, a bailout that eventually cost taxpayers over $100 billion. On
Wall Street, the recovery was already complete: the Dow Jones Industrial
Average closed 1989 at a record high, just over two years after Black
Monday’s 22.6% single-day crash, capping the bull market that had begun at
the Dow’s 776 low in August 1982. Between the S&L bailout, a wage floor
eroded by years without a raise, and a stock market at new highs, 1989
captured how unevenly the decade’s disinflation had been felt.
MLA: “Inflation from 1956 to 1989: $100 is worth $456 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1956-to-1989/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1956 to 1989. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1956-to-1989/