$100 in 1956 is worth $633 in 2000,
because prices increased 533.1% over that period, an average of
4.28% a year.
$100 in 1956 has
the same buying power as
$633
in 2000
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
533.1%
Average inflation rate
4.28% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$633
Price difference ($100 base)
$533
CPI in 1956
27.2
CPI in 2000
172.2
Inflation in 1956
1.49%
Inflation in 2000
3.36%
$100 in 1956 → 2000
$633
$100 in 2000 → 1956
$15.80
What happened to prices between 1956 and 2000
Between 1956 and 2000, the Consumer Price Index went from 27.2 to 172.2.
Cumulatively, prices increased 533.1%, which works out to an average of
4.28% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1956 bought what
$0.16 buys in 2000: the 1956 dollar
lost 84.2% of its purchasing power over
these 44 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 2000 at the same ratio, 6.33: $1,000 becomes
$6,331, and $10,000 becomes $63,309.
Amount in 1956
Value in 2000
$1.00
$6.33
$5.00
$31.65
$10.00
$63.31
$20.00
$127
$50.00
$317
$100
$633
$500
$3,165
$1,000
$6,331
$5,000
$31,654
$10,000
$63,309
$100,000
$633,088
$1,000,000
$6,330,882
Inflation by spending category, 1956–2000
Between 1956 and 2000, medical care rose the most, up 1279.9%, while apparel rose the least, up 196.6%, against 533.1% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1956
spending costs in 2000, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1956 →
All items (CPI-U)
4.28%
$633
Medical care
6.15%
$1,380
Food
4.15%
$599
Transportation
4.10%
$585
Apparel
2.50%
$297
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 2000
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 1956–2000 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
1990–2000
2.80%
31.8%
$633
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1956
$100 from 1956 had already become $240 by
1978, on its way to $633 in 2000; 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: 2000
In 2000, prices rose 3.4% and $100 from 1956 had the buying
power of $633; the year's average CPI of 172.2 is the level
behind every 2000 figure on this page.
Inflation ran at 3.4% in 2000, the highest annual rate since 1991, as an economy growing
above 4% and a rise in oil prices pushed the CPI up. The median household earned about
$42,100, gas averaged $1.51 a gallon, and a new home cost roughly $169,000. The Federal
Reserve had raised interest rates six times since mid-1999 and stopped at 6.5% in May. By
then the stock market had already turned: the Nasdaq hit its record of 5,048 on March 10 and
lost about 39% of its value by December. Consumer prices did not reflect the slowdown yet,
which is why the Fed held rates high through the year even as technology companies began to
fail. In October, Congress granted China permanent normal trade relations, a decision that
would help hold down the price of manufactured goods for years. A first-class stamp cost 33
cents and the federal minimum wage was $5.15. The recession of 2001 brought inflation back
down.
MLA: “Inflation from 1956 to 2000: $100 is worth $633 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1956-to-2000/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1956 to 2000. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1956-to-2000/