$100 in 1956 is worth $871 in 2015,
because prices increased 771.4% over that period, an average of
3.74% a year.
$100 in 1956 has
the same buying power as
$871
in 2015
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
771.4%
Average inflation rate
3.74% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$871
Price difference ($100 base)
$771
CPI in 1956
27.2
CPI in 2015
237.017
Inflation in 1956
1.49%
Inflation in 2015
0.12%
$100 in 1956 → 2015
$871
$100 in 2015 → 1956
$11.48
What happened to prices between 1956 and 2015
Between 1956 and 2015, the Consumer Price Index went from 27.2 to 237.017.
Cumulatively, prices increased 771.4%, which works out to an average of
3.74% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1956 bought what
$0.11 buys in 2015: the 1956 dollar
lost 88.5% of its purchasing power over
these 59 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 2015 at the same ratio, 8.71: $1,000 becomes
$8,714, and $10,000 becomes $87,139.
Amount in 1956
Value in 2015
$1.00
$8.71
$5.00
$43.57
$10.00
$87.14
$20.00
$174
$50.00
$436
$100
$871
$500
$4,357
$1,000
$8,714
$5,000
$43,569
$10,000
$87,139
$100,000
$871,386
$1,000,000
$8,713,860
Inflation by spending category, 1956–2015
Between 1956 and 2015, medical care rose the most, up 2263.8%, while apparel rose the least, up 188.1%, against 771.4% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1956
spending costs in 2015, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1956 →
All items (CPI-U)
3.74%
$871
Medical care
5.51%
$2,364
Food
3.76%
$883
Transportation
3.50%
$760
Apparel
1.81%
$288
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 2015
Prices climbed fastest in the 1970s, averaging 7.82% a year, and slowest in the 2010s (1.68% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1956–2015 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
2010–2015
1.68%
8.7%
$871
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1956
$100 from 1956 had already become $403 by
1986, on its way to $871 in 2015; 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: 2015
In 2015, prices rose 0.1% and $100 from 1956 had the buying
power of $871; the year's average CPI of 237.017 is the level
behind every 2015 figure on this page.
2015 was almost a year with no inflation at all. Consumer prices rose 0.1%,
the smallest increase since the 2009 decline, because energy prices kept
falling. Gasoline averaged $2.45 a gallon, down from $3.37 in 2014, and a
strong dollar made imported goods cheaper. The picture was different outside
food and energy: core prices rose about 1.8% as rents and medical costs
climbed.
Incomes finally showed real progress. Median household income reached $56,516,
a large jump from $53,657, and the median new home sold for about $296,400. The
federal minimum wage stayed at $7.25, and a first-class stamp stayed at 49
cents.
The Federal Reserve chose December to end its zero-rate policy, raising the
target range to 0.25–0.50% for the first time since 2006. It moved even
though headline inflation was far under 2%, arguing that the drag from
energy was temporary. Earlier, a currency shift in China in August had shaken
global markets and pushed oil below $40 a barrel. Prices in 2015 ended
the year barely above their 2014 level.
MLA: “Inflation from 1956 to 2015: $100 is worth $871 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1956-to-2015/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1956 to 2015. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1956-to-2015/