$100 in 1956 is worth $481 in 1990,
because prices increased 380.5% over that period, an average of
4.72% a year.
$100 in 1956 has
the same buying power as
$481
in 1990
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
380.5%
Average inflation rate
4.72% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$481
Price difference ($100 base)
$381
CPI in 1956
27.2
CPI in 1990
130.7
Inflation in 1956
1.49%
Inflation in 1990
5.40%
$100 in 1956 → 1990
$481
$100 in 1990 → 1956
$20.81
What happened to prices between 1956 and 1990
Between 1956 and 1990, the Consumer Price Index went from 27.2 to 130.7.
Cumulatively, prices increased 380.5%, which works out to an average of
4.72% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1956 bought what
$0.21 buys in 1990: the 1956 dollar
lost 79.2% of its purchasing power over
these 34 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 1990 at the same ratio, 4.81: $1,000 becomes
$4,805, and $10,000 becomes $48,051.
Amount in 1956
Value in 1990
$1.00
$4.81
$5.00
$24.03
$10.00
$48.05
$20.00
$96.10
$50.00
$240
$100
$481
$500
$2,403
$1,000
$4,805
$5,000
$24,026
$10,000
$48,051
$100,000
$480,515
$1,000,000
$4,805,147
Inflation by spending category, 1956–1990
Between 1956 and 1990, medical care rose the most, up 761.4%, while apparel rose the least, up 184.0%, against 380.5% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1956
spending costs in 1990, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1956 →
All items (CPI-U)
4.72%
$481
Medical care
6.54%
$861
Food
4.68%
$473
Transportation
4.59%
$460
Apparel
3.12%
$284
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 1990
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 1956–1990 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
1980–1990
4.72%
58.6%
$481
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1956
$100 from 1956 had already become $154 by
1972, on its way to $481 in 1990; 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: 1990
In 1990, prices rose 5.4% and $100 from 1956 had the buying
power of $481; the year's average CPI of 130.7 is the level
behind every 1990 figure on this page.
In 1990, the median U.S. household earned about $29,900, gas averaged $1.15 a
gallon, and mailing a letter cost a quarter. Inflation ran hot at 5.4% for the
year, its highest rate since 1982, pushed up by an oil shock after Iraq’s
invasion of Kuwait, and the economy tipped into recession that summer. It was
the last gasp of elevated inflation before the long calm of the 1990s.
MLA: “Inflation from 1956 to 1990: $100 is worth $481 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1956-to-1990/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1956 to 1990. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1956-to-1990/