$100 in 1956 is worth $802 in 2010,
because prices increased 701.7% over that period, an average of
3.93% a year.
$100 in 1956 has
the same buying power as
$802
in 2010
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
701.7%
Average inflation rate
3.93% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$802
Price difference ($100 base)
$702
CPI in 1956
27.2
CPI in 2010
218.056
Inflation in 1956
1.49%
Inflation in 2010
1.64%
$100 in 1956 → 2010
$802
$100 in 2010 → 1956
$12.47
What happened to prices between 1956 and 2010
Between 1956 and 2010, the Consumer Price Index went from 27.2 to 218.056.
Cumulatively, prices increased 701.7%, which works out to an average of
3.93% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1956 bought what
$0.12 buys in 2010: the 1956 dollar
lost 87.5% of its purchasing power over
these 54 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 2010 at the same ratio, 8.02: $1,000 becomes
$8,017, and $10,000 becomes $80,168.
Amount in 1956
Value in 2010
$1.00
$8.02
$5.00
$40.08
$10.00
$80.17
$20.00
$160
$50.00
$401
$100
$802
$500
$4,008
$1,000
$8,017
$5,000
$40,084
$10,000
$80,168
$100,000
$801,676
$1,000,000
$8,016,765
Inflation by spending category, 1956–2010
Between 1956 and 2010, medical care rose the most, up 1955.2%, while apparel rose the least, up 173.5%, against 701.7% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1956
spending costs in 2010, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1956 →
All items (CPI-U)
3.93%
$802
Medical care
5.76%
$2,055
Food
3.89%
$784
Transportation
3.77%
$738
Apparel
1.88%
$273
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 2010
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 1956–2010 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
2000–2010
2.39%
26.6%
$802
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1956
$100 from 1956 had already become $355 by
1982, on its way to $802 in 2010; 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 prices fell 0.4% in 2009, the deepest deflation of the period.
Long periods are sampled every 2 years; the calculator above covers any pair of years.
The destination year: 2010
In 2010, prices rose 1.6% and $100 from 1956 had the buying
power of $802; the year's average CPI of 218.056 is the level
behind every 2010 figure on this page.
2010 was a year of recovery without much price pressure. The CPI rose 1.6%, a
return to growth after 2009’s deflation, with gasoline averaging $2.78 a
gallon as energy prices climbed back from their recession lows. Housing costs
barely moved: millions of foreclosed and vacant homes kept rents soft, and the
median new home sold for about $221,800. The federal minimum wage stayed at
$7.25, the level set in July 2009, and a first-class stamp cost 44 cents.
The Federal Reserve was more worried about too little inflation than too
much. Its policy rate sat at 0–0.25%, and in November it announced a further
$600 billion of Treasury purchases to hold down long-term borrowing costs.
Congress passed the Dodd-Frank Act in July to tighten financial regulation,
while a 110 billion euro rescue of Greece in May showed that the crisis had
moved from American mortgages to European government debt. For anyone
comparing dollars across the decade, 2010 is a useful baseline: prices were
still close to their 2008 levels, and the years ahead brought a slow, steady
climb.
MLA: “Inflation from 1956 to 2010: $100 is worth $802 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1956-to-2010/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1956 to 2010. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1956-to-2010/