$100 in 1956 is worth $1,120 in 2023,
because prices increased 1020.2% over that period, an average of
3.67% a year.
$100 in 1956 has
the same buying power as
$1,120
in 2023
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
1020.2%
Average inflation rate
3.67% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$1,120
Price difference ($100 base)
$1,020
CPI in 1956
27.2
CPI in 2023
304.702
Inflation in 1956
1.49%
Inflation in 2023
4.12%
$100 in 1956 → 2023
$1,120
$100 in 2023 → 1956
$8.93
What happened to prices between 1956 and 2023
Between 1956 and 2023, the Consumer Price Index went from 27.2 to 304.702.
Cumulatively, prices increased 1020.2%, which works out to an average of
3.67% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1956 bought what
$0.09 buys in 2023: the 1956 dollar
lost 91.1% of its purchasing power over
these 67 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 2023 at the same ratio, 11.20: $1,000 becomes
$11,202, and $10,000 becomes $112,023.
Amount in 1956
Value in 2023
$1.00
$11.20
$5.00
$56.01
$10.00
$112
$20.00
$224
$50.00
$560
$100
$1,120
$500
$5,601
$1,000
$11,202
$5,000
$56,011
$10,000
$112,023
$100,000
$1,120,228
$1,000,000
$11,202,279
Inflation by spending category, 1956–2023
Between 1956 and 2023, medical care rose the most, up 2805.2%, while apparel rose the least, up 198.8%, against 1020.2% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1956
spending costs in 2023, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1956 →
All items (CPI-U)
3.67%
$1,120
Medical care
5.16%
$2,905
Food
3.72%
$1,153
Transportation
3.53%
$1,019
Apparel
1.65%
$299
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 2023
Prices climbed fastest in the 1970s, averaging 7.82% a year, and slowest in the 2010s (1.73% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1956–2023 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
2010–2020
1.73%
18.7%
$952
2020–2023
5.59%
17.7%
$1,120
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1956
$100 from 1956 had already become $501 by
1991, on its way to $1,120 in 2023; 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 5 years; the calculator above covers any pair of years.
The destination year: 2023
In 2023, prices rose 4.1% and $100 from 1956 had the buying
power of $1,120; the year's average CPI of 304.702 is the level
behind every 2023 figure on this page.
2023 was the year inflation came down without a recession. Consumer prices
rose 4.1% on average, roughly half of 2022’s 8.0%, and the December-to-December
rate fell to 3.4%. Gasoline averaged $3.52 a gallon, well below the 2022
average, and supply-chain pressure on goods eased. Shelter, restaurant meals,
and other services stayed expensive, so the CPI kept rising at a rate well
above the pre-pandemic pace.
The Federal Reserve completed its rate-hiking campaign in July, taking the
policy rate to 5.25–5.50%, the highest level in 22 years. The effects showed
up in banking: Silicon Valley Bank failed in March after rate increases eroded
the value of its bond portfolio, the second-largest bank failure in U.S.
history at the time. Despite that, unemployment stayed under 4% all year.
Median household income was $80,610 according to the Census Bureau. The
federal minimum wage stayed at $7.25, and a first-class stamp rose to 66 cents
in July.
MLA: “Inflation from 1956 to 2023: $100 is worth $1,120 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1956-to-2023/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1956 to 2023. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1956-to-2023/