$100 in 1956 is worth $577 in 1996,
because prices increased 476.8% over that period, an average of
4.48% a year.
$100 in 1956 has
the same buying power as
$577
in 1996
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
476.8%
Average inflation rate
4.48% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$577
Price difference ($100 base)
$477
CPI in 1956
27.2
CPI in 1996
156.9
Inflation in 1956
1.49%
Inflation in 1996
2.95%
$100 in 1956 → 1996
$577
$100 in 1996 → 1956
$17.34
What happened to prices between 1956 and 1996
Between 1956 and 1996, the Consumer Price Index went from 27.2 to 156.9.
Cumulatively, prices increased 476.8%, which works out to an average of
4.48% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1956 bought what
$0.17 buys in 1996: the 1956 dollar
lost 82.7% of its purchasing power over
these 40 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 1996 at the same ratio, 5.77: $1,000 becomes
$5,768, and $10,000 becomes $57,684.
Amount in 1956
Value in 1996
$1.00
$5.77
$5.00
$28.84
$10.00
$57.68
$20.00
$115
$50.00
$288
$100
$577
$500
$2,884
$1,000
$5,768
$5,000
$28,842
$10,000
$57,684
$100,000
$576,838
$1,000,000
$5,768,382
Inflation by spending category, 1956–1996
Between 1956 and 1996, medical care rose the most, up 1107.4%, while apparel rose the least, up 201.4%, against 476.8% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1956
spending costs in 1996, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1956 →
All items (CPI-U)
4.48%
$577
Medical care
6.43%
$1,207
Food
4.34%
$548
Transportation
4.33%
$546
Apparel
2.80%
$301
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 1996
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 1956–1996 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
1990–1996
3.09%
20.0%
$577
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1956
$100 from 1956 had already become $209 by
1976, on its way to $577 in 1996; 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: 1996
In 1996, prices rose 3.0% and $100 from 1956 had the buying
power of $577; the year's average CPI of 156.9 is the level
behind every 1996 figure on this page.
The median household earned about $35,500 in 1996, gas averaged $1.23 a gallon, up noticeably
from the mid-decade lull, and a new home cost roughly $140,000. Inflation ran at 3.0% for the
year, ticking back up from 1995 as energy prices firmed. Washington passed two of the decade’s
more consequential laws that year: in February, the Telecommunications Act rewrote the rules for
phone, cable, and broadcast media for the first time since 1934, opening local markets to
competition and easing ownership limits; in August, a welfare overhaul ended the federal
guarantee of cash assistance, replacing it with block grants to states and time limits on
benefits. In October, the federal minimum wage rose to $4.75 an hour, its first increase in five
years and the opening step of a two-part law that would take it to $5.15 the following
September. Two sweeping new laws and a minimum wage finally on the move again made 1996 a year
that changed more about how the economy was governed than about how fast prices moved.
MLA: “Inflation from 1956 to 1996: $100 is worth $577 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1956-to-1996/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1956 to 1996. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1956-to-1996/