$100 in 1956 is worth $599 in 1998,
because prices increased 499.3% over that period, an average of
4.36% a year.
$100 in 1956 has
the same buying power as
$599
in 1998
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
499.3%
Average inflation rate
4.36% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$599
Price difference ($100 base)
$499
CPI in 1956
27.2
CPI in 1998
163
Inflation in 1956
1.49%
Inflation in 1998
1.56%
$100 in 1956 → 1998
$599
$100 in 1998 → 1956
$16.69
What happened to prices between 1956 and 1998
Between 1956 and 1998, the Consumer Price Index went from 27.2 to 163.
Cumulatively, prices increased 499.3%, which works out to an average of
4.36% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1956 bought what
$0.17 buys in 1998: the 1956 dollar
lost 83.3% of its purchasing power over
these 42 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 1998 at the same ratio, 5.99: $1,000 becomes
$5,993, and $10,000 becomes $59,926.
Amount in 1956
Value in 1998
$1.00
$5.99
$5.00
$29.96
$10.00
$59.93
$20.00
$120
$50.00
$300
$100
$599
$500
$2,996
$1,000
$5,993
$5,000
$29,963
$10,000
$59,926
$100,000
$599,265
$1,000,000
$5,992,647
Inflation by spending category, 1956–1998
Between 1956 and 1998, medical care rose the most, up 1181.0%, while apparel rose the least, up 204.3%, against 499.3% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1956
spending costs in 1998, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1956 →
All items (CPI-U)
4.36%
$599
Medical care
6.26%
$1,281
Food
4.25%
$574
Transportation
4.10%
$540
Apparel
2.69%
$304
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 1998
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 1956–1998 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
1990–1998
2.80%
24.7%
$599
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1956
$100 from 1956 had already become $209 by
1976, on its way to $599 in 1998; 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: 1998
In 1998, prices rose 1.6% and $100 from 1956 had the buying
power of $599; the year's average CPI of 163 is the level
behind every 1998 figure on this page.
The median household earned about $38,900 in 1998, gas averaged just $1.06 a gallon, its
cheapest of the decade, and a new home cost roughly $152,500. Inflation ran at 1.6% for the
year, the lowest of the 1990s, as a glut of crude oil, worsened by weak demand from Asia’s
slowdown, pushed prices below $11 a barrel by December and pulled pump prices down with them.
The calm at home came alongside real turmoil abroad: in August, Russia devalued the ruble and
defaulted on its domestic debt, rattling markets already unsettled by the Asian financial
crisis, and in September the hedge fund Long-Term Capital Management collapsed after its highly
leveraged bets went bad, prompting the Federal Reserve to organize a private-sector bailout by
more than a dozen banks to prevent a disorderly unwinding of its roughly $100 billion in
positions. The Fed also cut interest rates three times that fall, in September, October, and
November, an insurance policy against the global financial turmoil spreading to the U.S.
economy. Cheap oil and a well-timed set of rate cuts left 1998 as a year the U.S. economy
absorbed two foreign financial crises without much of a dent at home.
MLA: “Inflation from 1956 to 1998: $100 is worth $599 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1956-to-1998/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1956 to 1998. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1956-to-1998/