$100 in 1956 is worth $501 in 1991,
because prices increased 400.7% over that period, an average of
4.71% a year.
$100 in 1956 has
the same buying power as
$501
in 1991
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
400.7%
Average inflation rate
4.71% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$501
Price difference ($100 base)
$401
CPI in 1956
27.2
CPI in 1991
136.2
Inflation in 1956
1.49%
Inflation in 1991
4.21%
$100 in 1956 → 1991
$501
$100 in 1991 → 1956
$19.97
What happened to prices between 1956 and 1991
Between 1956 and 1991, the Consumer Price Index went from 27.2 to 136.2.
Cumulatively, prices increased 400.7%, which works out to an average of
4.71% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1956 bought what
$0.20 buys in 1991: the 1956 dollar
lost 80.0% of its purchasing power over
these 35 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 1991 at the same ratio, 5.01: $1,000 becomes
$5,007, and $10,000 becomes $50,074.
Amount in 1956
Value in 1991
$1.00
$5.01
$5.00
$25.04
$10.00
$50.07
$20.00
$100
$50.00
$250
$100
$501
$500
$2,504
$1,000
$5,007
$5,000
$25,037
$10,000
$50,074
$100,000
$500,735
$1,000,000
$5,007,353
Inflation by spending category, 1956–1991
Between 1956 and 1991, medical care rose the most, up 836.5%, while apparel rose the least, up 194.5%, against 400.7% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1956
spending costs in 1991, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1956 →
All items (CPI-U)
4.71%
$501
Medical care
6.60%
$937
Food
4.63%
$487
Transportation
4.54%
$473
Apparel
3.13%
$295
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 1991
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 1956–1991 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
1990–1991
4.21%
4.2%
$501
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1956
$100 from 1956 had already become $181 by
1974, on its way to $501 in 1991; 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: 1991
In 1991, prices rose 4.2% and $100 from 1956 had the buying
power of $501; the year's average CPI of 136.2 is the level
behind every 1991 figure on this page.
1991 opened in recession and closed in a slow, uneven recovery. The median household earned
about $30,100 for the year, gas averaged $1.14 a gallon, and a new home cost roughly $120,000.
Inflation ran at 4.2% for the year, down from 1990’s oil-driven spike, as the Gulf War ended in
February and crude oil retreated from its autumn highs. The recession itself, dated by the
National Bureau of Economic Research from July 1990 to March 1991, was technically over by
spring, but hiring stayed weak well into 1992, the stretch economists came to call the jobless
recovery. The Federal Reserve kept cutting interest rates through the year to support growth,
reversing the tightening campaign it had run through the late 1980s. In April the federal
minimum wage rose to $4.25 an hour, the second step of an increase from the $3.35 rate that had
held since 1981. The Postal Service had already raised the cost of a first-class stamp to 29
cents that February. It was the first full year of the decade without an oil shock driving
prices, even if the job market took longer to follow.
MLA: “Inflation from 1956 to 1991: $100 is worth $501 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1956-to-1991/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1956 to 1991. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1956-to-1991/