$100 in 1956 is worth $870 in 2014,
because prices increased 770.4% over that period, an average of
3.80% a year.
$100 in 1956 has
the same buying power as
$870
in 2014
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
770.4%
Average inflation rate
3.80% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$870
Price difference ($100 base)
$770
CPI in 1956
27.2
CPI in 2014
236.736
Inflation in 1956
1.49%
Inflation in 2014
1.62%
$100 in 1956 → 2014
$870
$100 in 2014 → 1956
$11.49
What happened to prices between 1956 and 2014
Between 1956 and 2014, the Consumer Price Index went from 27.2 to 236.736.
Cumulatively, prices increased 770.4%, which works out to an average of
3.80% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1956 bought what
$0.11 buys in 2014: the 1956 dollar
lost 88.5% of its purchasing power over
these 58 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 2014 at the same ratio, 8.70: $1,000 becomes
$8,704, and $10,000 becomes $87,035.
Amount in 1956
Value in 2014
$1.00
$8.70
$5.00
$43.52
$10.00
$87.04
$20.00
$174
$50.00
$435
$100
$870
$500
$4,352
$1,000
$8,704
$5,000
$43,518
$10,000
$87,035
$100,000
$870,353
$1,000,000
$8,703,529
Inflation by spending category, 1956–2014
Between 1956 and 2014, medical care rose the most, up 2203.1%, while apparel rose the least, up 191.8%, against 770.4% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1956
spending costs in 2014, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1956 →
All items (CPI-U)
3.80%
$870
Medical care
5.56%
$2,303
Food
3.79%
$867
Transportation
3.70%
$824
Apparel
1.86%
$292
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 2014
Prices climbed fastest in the 1970s, averaging 7.82% a year, and slowest in the 2010s (2.08% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1956–2014 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
2010–2014
2.08%
8.6%
$870
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1956
$100 from 1956 had already become $382 by
1984, on its way to $870 in 2014; 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: 2014
In 2014, prices rose 1.6% and $100 from 1956 had the buying
power of $870; the year's average CPI of 236.736 is the level
behind every 2014 figure on this page.
2014 ended with the sharpest oil price drop in years. Consumer prices rose
1.6% for the year, close to 2013’s pace, but the annual figure hid a shift at
the pump: crude oil fell from above $100 a barrel in June to below $60 in
December, and gasoline finished the year near $2.25 a gallon after averaging
$3.37 across 2014. The drop reflected record U.S. shale output, softer
global demand, and OPEC’s decision in November to keep producing.
For households, cheaper fuel arrived just as the labor market strengthened.
Median household income was $53,657, essentially flat on the prior year, and
the median new home sold for about $288,500. The federal minimum wage stayed
at $7.25 for a fifth year, and a first-class stamp rose to 49 cents.
The Federal Reserve ended its bond purchases in October but left its policy
rate at zero. A stronger dollar helped hold down import prices. Because
energy weighs heavily in the CPI, the late-year slide carried into 2015, which
posted the smallest annual increase of the decade.
MLA: “Inflation from 1956 to 2014: $100 is worth $870 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1956-to-2014/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1956 to 2014. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1956-to-2014/