$100 in 1956 is worth $516 in 1992,
because prices increased 415.8% over that period, an average of
4.66% a year.
$100 in 1956 has
the same buying power as
$516
in 1992
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
415.8%
Average inflation rate
4.66% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$516
Price difference ($100 base)
$416
CPI in 1956
27.2
CPI in 1992
140.3
Inflation in 1956
1.49%
Inflation in 1992
3.01%
$100 in 1956 → 1992
$516
$100 in 1992 → 1956
$19.39
What happened to prices between 1956 and 1992
Between 1956 and 1992, the Consumer Price Index went from 27.2 to 140.3.
Cumulatively, prices increased 415.8%, which works out to an average of
4.66% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1956 bought what
$0.19 buys in 1992: the 1956 dollar
lost 80.6% of its purchasing power over
these 36 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 1992 at the same ratio, 5.16: $1,000 becomes
$5,158, and $10,000 becomes $51,581.
Amount in 1956
Value in 1992
$1.00
$5.16
$5.00
$25.79
$10.00
$51.58
$20.00
$103
$50.00
$258
$100
$516
$500
$2,579
$1,000
$5,158
$5,000
$25,790
$10,000
$51,581
$100,000
$515,809
$1,000,000
$5,158,088
Inflation by spending category, 1956–1992
Between 1956 and 1992, medical care rose the most, up 905.8%, while apparel rose the least, up 201.8%, against 415.8% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1956
spending costs in 1992, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1956 →
All items (CPI-U)
4.66%
$516
Medical care
6.62%
$1,006
Food
4.53%
$493
Transportation
4.47%
$483
Apparel
3.12%
$302
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 1992
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 1956–1992 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
1990–1992
3.61%
7.3%
$516
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1956
$100 from 1956 had already become $181 by
1974, on its way to $516 in 1992; 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: 1992
In 1992, prices rose 3.0% and $100 from 1956 had the buying
power of $516; the year's average CPI of 140.3 is the level
behind every 1992 figure on this page.
1992 was the year the recovery finally showed up in the numbers, if not yet in hiring. The
median household earned about $30,600, gas averaged $1.13 a gallon, and a new home cost roughly
$121,500. Inflation ran at 3.0% for the year, its calmest reading since the mid-1980s, as energy
prices stayed well below their 1990 peak and a slack labor market kept a lid on wages and prices
alike. The Federal Reserve kept cutting its policy rate through the year, reaching about 3% by
September, the lowest in decades, trying to jump-start hiring more than a year after the 1990-91
recession officially ended. The sluggish job market became the defining issue of the November
election, and Bill Clinton unseated incumbent George H.W. Bush, whose approval ratings had
fallen sharply from their post-Gulf War highs. In August, Hurricane Andrew tore through South
Florida, the costliest U.S. hurricane on record at the time, causing tens of billions of dollars
in damage and reshaping how insurers priced catastrophe risk for years afterward. Falling rates,
a costly hurricane, and an election fought over jobs defined a recovery that showed up in the
data well before it showed up in most paychecks.
MLA: “Inflation from 1956 to 1992: $100 is worth $516 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1956-to-1992/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1956 to 1992. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1956-to-1992/