$100 in 1956 is worth $882 in 2016,
because prices increased 782.4% over that period, an average of
3.70% a year.
$100 in 1956 has
the same buying power as
$882
in 2016
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
782.4%
Average inflation rate
3.70% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$882
Price difference ($100 base)
$782
CPI in 1956
27.2
CPI in 2016
240.007
Inflation in 1956
1.49%
Inflation in 2016
1.26%
$100 in 1956 → 2016
$882
$100 in 2016 → 1956
$11.33
What happened to prices between 1956 and 2016
Between 1956 and 2016, the Consumer Price Index went from 27.2 to 240.007.
Cumulatively, prices increased 782.4%, which works out to an average of
3.70% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1956 bought what
$0.11 buys in 2016: the 1956 dollar
lost 88.7% of its purchasing power over
these 60 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 2016 at the same ratio, 8.82: $1,000 becomes
$8,824, and $10,000 becomes $88,238.
Amount in 1956
Value in 2016
$1.00
$8.82
$5.00
$44.12
$10.00
$88.24
$20.00
$176
$50.00
$441
$100
$882
$500
$4,412
$1,000
$8,824
$5,000
$44,119
$10,000
$88,238
$100,000
$882,379
$1,000,000
$8,823,787
Inflation by spending category, 1956–2016
Between 1956 and 2016, medical care rose the most, up 2353.3%, while apparel rose the least, up 188.4%, against 782.4% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1956
spending costs in 2016, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1956 →
All items (CPI-U)
3.70%
$882
Medical care
5.48%
$2,453
Food
3.70%
$885
Transportation
3.40%
$744
Apparel
1.78%
$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 2016
Prices climbed fastest in the 1970s, averaging 7.82% a year, and slowest in the 2010s (1.61% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1956–2016 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
2010–2016
1.61%
10.1%
$882
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1956
$100 from 1956 had already become $403 by
1986, on its way to $882 in 2016; 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: 2016
In 2016, prices rose 1.3% and $100 from 1956 had the buying
power of $882; the year's average CPI of 240.007 is the level
behind every 2016 figure on this page.
2016 opened with the cheapest oil in more than a decade and closed with a
change in political direction. Crude fell to about $26 a barrel in February,
and gasoline averaged $2.14 a gallon for the year, its lowest annual
average since 2004. Headline inflation was 1.3%, a modest rebound from 2015’s
0.1%, though prices excluding food and energy rose faster, driven by rents and
health care.
Median household income rose to $59,039, the second large gain in a row, and
the median new home sold for about $307,800. The federal minimum wage held at
$7.25, and a first-class stamp fell to 47 cents after a January rate cut, a
rare decrease.
Two votes changed the outlook. Britain’s June decision to leave the European
Union unsettled currency markets, and the U.S. election in November raised
expectations of tax cuts, deficits, and faster growth, sending long-term
interest rates higher. OPEC’s November output cut ended the oil slump, and the
Federal Reserve made its second rate increase in December, to 0.50–0.75%.
MLA: “Inflation from 1956 to 2016: $100 is worth $882 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1956-to-2016/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1956 to 2016. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1956-to-2016/