$100 in 1956 is worth $661 in 2002,
because prices increased 561.4% over that period, an average of
4.19% a year.
$100 in 1956 has
the same buying power as
$661
in 2002
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
561.4%
Average inflation rate
4.19% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$661
Price difference ($100 base)
$561
CPI in 1956
27.2
CPI in 2002
179.9
Inflation in 1956
1.49%
Inflation in 2002
1.58%
$100 in 1956 → 2002
$661
$100 in 2002 → 1956
$15.12
What happened to prices between 1956 and 2002
Between 1956 and 2002, the Consumer Price Index went from 27.2 to 179.9.
Cumulatively, prices increased 561.4%, which works out to an average of
4.19% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1956 bought what
$0.15 buys in 2002: the 1956 dollar
lost 84.9% of its purchasing power over
these 46 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 2002 at the same ratio, 6.61: $1,000 becomes
$6,614, and $10,000 becomes $66,140.
Amount in 1956
Value in 2002
$1.00
$6.61
$5.00
$33.07
$10.00
$66.14
$20.00
$132
$50.00
$331
$100
$661
$500
$3,307
$1,000
$6,614
$5,000
$33,070
$10,000
$66,140
$100,000
$661,397
$1,000,000
$6,613,971
Inflation by spending category, 1956–2002
Between 1956 and 2002, medical care rose the most, up 1411.1%, while apparel rose the least, up 183.8%, against 561.4% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1956
spending costs in 2002, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1956 →
All items (CPI-U)
4.19%
$661
Medical care
6.08%
$1,511
Food
4.08%
$629
Transportation
3.91%
$584
Apparel
2.29%
$284
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 2002
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 1956–2002 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
2000–2002
2.21%
4.5%
$661
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1956
$100 from 1956 had already become $240 by
1978, on its way to $661 in 2002; 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: 2002
In 2002, prices rose 1.6% and $100 from 1956 had the buying
power of $661; the year's average CPI of 179.9 is the level
behind every 2002 figure on this page.
The CPI rose 1.6% in 2002, the lowest annual rate of the decade so far, with gasoline down to an
average of $1.36 a gallon and slack in the labor market keeping wage pressure low. The median
household earned about $42,400, and a new home cost roughly $187,600, an increase of about 7%
from the year before as low mortgage rates began to lift housing. The Federal Reserve cut its
policy rate to 1.25% in November. Stocks were moving the other way: after the Enron and WorldCom
scandals, the S&P 500 hit its bear-market low on October 9, about 49% below its March 2000
peak, and Congress passed the Sarbanes-Oxley Act in July to tighten corporate accounting rules.
On January 1, euro banknotes and coins replaced national currencies in 12 European countries. A
first-class stamp rose to 37 cents in June, and the federal minimum wage stayed at $5.15.
MLA: “Inflation from 1956 to 2002: $100 is worth $661 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1956-to-2002/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1956 to 2002. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1956-to-2002/