$100 in 1956 is worth $560 in 1995,
because prices increased 460.3% over that period, an average of
4.52% a year.
$100 in 1956 has
the same buying power as
$560
in 1995
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
460.3%
Average inflation rate
4.52% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$560
Price difference ($100 base)
$460
CPI in 1956
27.2
CPI in 1995
152.4
Inflation in 1956
1.49%
Inflation in 1995
2.83%
$100 in 1956 → 1995
$560
$100 in 1995 → 1956
$17.85
What happened to prices between 1956 and 1995
Between 1956 and 1995, the Consumer Price Index went from 27.2 to 152.4.
Cumulatively, prices increased 460.3%, which works out to an average of
4.52% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1956 bought what
$0.18 buys in 1995: the 1956 dollar
lost 82.2% of its purchasing power over
these 39 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 1995 at the same ratio, 5.60: $1,000 becomes
$5,603, and $10,000 becomes $56,029.
Amount in 1956
Value in 1995
$1.00
$5.60
$5.00
$28.01
$10.00
$56.03
$20.00
$112
$50.00
$280
$100
$560
$500
$2,801
$1,000
$5,603
$5,000
$28,015
$10,000
$56,029
$100,000
$560,294
$1,000,000
$5,602,941
Inflation by spending category, 1956–1995
Between 1956 and 1995, medical care rose the most, up 1066.7%, while apparel rose the least, up 202.1%, against 460.3% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1956
spending costs in 1995, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1956 →
All items (CPI-U)
4.52%
$560
Medical care
6.50%
$1,167
Transportation
4.37%
$531
Food
4.37%
$530
Apparel
2.88%
$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 1995
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 1956–1995 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
1990–1995
3.12%
16.6%
$560
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1956
$100 from 1956 had already become $209 by
1976, on its way to $560 in 1995; 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: 1995
In 1995, prices rose 2.8% and $100 from 1956 had the buying
power of $560; the year's average CPI of 152.4 is the level
behind every 1995 figure on this page.
In 1995, gas averaged $1.15 a gallon, a new home cost roughly $133,900, and the median household
earned about $34,100. Inflation ran at 2.8% for the year, little changed from 1994, as the
Federal Reserve shifted from raising rates to cutting them. Having lifted its policy rate six
times the year before, the Fed judged by July that the economy had cooled enough on its own, and
trimmed rates instead, an outcome economists would later point to as a rare soft landing. The
year opened with a currency crisis: Mexico’s peso lost roughly half its value against the dollar
in a matter of weeks, and the U.S. Treasury and the IMF assembled a $50 billion rescue package,
controversial in Congress, to stabilize it and keep the crisis from spreading to other emerging
markets. Closer to home, a budget standoff between President Clinton and the Republican Congress
shut down federal agencies twice, first for five days in November and then for 21 days spanning
December into January 1996, the longest shutdown up to that point. The Postal Service raised the
cost of a first-class stamp to 32 cents in January. Low, steady inflation was about the only calm
part of 1995’s economic story.
MLA: “Inflation from 1956 to 1995: $100 is worth $560 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1956-to-1995/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1956 to 1995. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1956-to-1995/