$100 in 1956 is worth $844 in 2012,
because prices increased 744.1% over that period, an average of
3.88% a year.
$100 in 1956 has
the same buying power as
$844
in 2012
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
744.1%
Average inflation rate
3.88% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$844
Price difference ($100 base)
$744
CPI in 1956
27.2
CPI in 2012
229.594
Inflation in 1956
1.49%
Inflation in 2012
2.07%
$100 in 1956 → 2012
$844
$100 in 2012 → 1956
$11.85
What happened to prices between 1956 and 2012
Between 1956 and 2012, the Consumer Price Index went from 27.2 to 229.594.
Cumulatively, prices increased 744.1%, which works out to an average of
3.88% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1956 bought what
$0.12 buys in 2012: the 1956 dollar
lost 88.2% of its purchasing power over
these 56 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 2012 at the same ratio, 8.44: $1,000 becomes
$8,441, and $10,000 becomes $84,410.
Amount in 1956
Value in 2012
$1.00
$8.44
$5.00
$42.20
$10.00
$84.41
$20.00
$169
$50.00
$422
$100
$844
$500
$4,220
$1,000
$8,441
$5,000
$42,205
$10,000
$84,410
$100,000
$844,096
$1,000,000
$8,440,956
Inflation by spending category, 1956–2012
Between 1956 and 2012, medical care rose the most, up 2095.4%, while apparel rose the least, up 188.9%, against 744.1% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1956
spending costs in 2012, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1956 →
All items (CPI-U)
3.88%
$844
Medical care
5.67%
$2,195
Food
3.86%
$835
Transportation
3.85%
$830
Apparel
1.91%
$289
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 2012
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 1956–2012 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
2010–2012
2.61%
5.3%
$844
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1956
$100 from 1956 had already become $382 by
1984, on its way to $844 in 2012; 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: 2012
In 2012, prices rose 2.1% and $100 from 1956 had the buying
power of $844; the year's average CPI of 229.594 is the level
behind every 2012 figure on this page.
2012 put a number on what the Federal Reserve was aiming for. In January the
Fed announced a 2% inflation target, and consumer prices rose 2.1% for the
year, almost exactly on it. Gasoline averaged $3.62 a gallon, another annual
high, but the pace of increase cooled from 2011’s 3.2% as food and core prices
grew more slowly.
The bigger story was housing and jobs. Home prices began to recover, and the
median new home sold for about $245,200, up from $227,200 the year before.
Median household income was $51,017. The federal minimum wage held at $7.25,
and a first-class stamp rose to 45 cents.
In September the Fed started a third round of asset purchases, this one with
no fixed end date, aimed at lowering unemployment. Overseas, the European
Central Bank’s July pledge to do “whatever it takes” to save the euro calmed
bond markets. A summer drought across the Midwest drove corn and soybean
prices to records, a shock that reached grocery shelves only partly, because
most of what shoppers pay for food covers processing and transport rather than
raw crops.
MLA: “Inflation from 1956 to 2012: $100 is worth $844 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1956-to-2012/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1956 to 2012. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1956-to-2012/