$100 in 1957 is worth $103 in 1958,
because prices increased 2.8% over that period, an average of
2.85% a year.
$100 in 1957 has
the same buying power as
$103
in 1958
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
2.8%
Average inflation rate
2.85% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$103
Price difference ($100 base)
$2.85
CPI in 1957
28.1
CPI in 1958
28.9
Inflation in 1957
3.31%
Inflation in 1958
2.85%
$100 in 1957 → 1958
$103
$100 in 1958 → 1957
$97.23
What happened to prices between 1957 and 1958
Between 1957 and 1958, the Consumer Price Index went from 28.1 to 28.9.
Cumulatively, prices increased 2.8%, which works out to an average of
2.85% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1957 bought what
$0.97 buys in 1958: the 1957 dollar
lost 2.8% of its purchasing power over
these 1 years.
Consumer prices rose 3.3% in 1957, up from 1956’s 1.5% and
the sharpest increase since the Korean War price surge of 1951. The jump
fed a growing debate among economists over “cost-push” inflation, prices
climbing from rising wages and material costs rather than excess demand,
a debate that would recur for the next quarter century. The Federal
Reserve tightened policy to fight it, and by August the tighter money
combined with falling business investment to tip the economy into a
recession, according to the National Bureau of Economic Research’s
dating. The Cold War took a technological turn that October, when the
Soviet Union launched Sputnik, the first artificial satellite, on the
4th, stunning the American public and setting off both the Space Race and
a surge in federal science and defense spending the following year. Civil
rights reached a crisis that September in Little Rock, Arkansas: after
Governor Orval Faubus used the National Guard to block nine Black
students from Central High School, Eisenhower federalized the Guard and
sent the 101st Airborne Division to enforce the Supreme Court’s
desegregation order. Consumer prices finished 1957 183.8% above their
1913 level. First-class postage held at 3 cents, and the
minimum wage stood at $1.00 an hour.
Every 1957 amount converts to 1958 at the same ratio, 1.03: $1,000 becomes
$1,028, and $10,000 becomes $10,285.
Amount in 1957
Value in 1958
$1.00
$1.03
$5.00
$5.14
$10.00
$10.28
$20.00
$20.57
$50.00
$51.42
$100
$103
$500
$514
$1,000
$1,028
$5,000
$5,142
$10,000
$10,285
$100,000
$102,847
$1,000,000
$1,028,470
Inflation by spending category, 1957–1958
Between 1957 and 1958, medical care rose the most, up 4.6%, while energy rose the least, up 0.0%, against 2.8% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1957
spending costs in 1958, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1957 →
All items (CPI-U)
2.85%
$103
Medical care
4.57%
$105
Food
4.50%
$104
Transportation
3.25%
$103
Core (all items less food & energy)
2.42%
$102
Apparel
0.22%
$100
Energy
0.00%
$100
Not shown because the BLS began these indexes after 1957: housing (1967–), recreation (1993–), education & communication (1993–).
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1957
$100 from 1957grew to $103 by 1958; each row
shows the CPI, that year's inflation rate, and the running value.
In 1958, prices rose 2.8% and $100 from 1957 had the buying
power of $103; the year's average CPI of 28.9 is the level
behind every 1958 figure on this page.
Consumer prices rose 2.8% in 1958, down only slightly from
1957’s 3.3% even as the country sank into the sharpest
postwar recession to that point, an early sign that inflation and a
shrinking economy could coexist rather than trade off against each other.
The National Bureau of Economic Research dates the downturn’s trough to
that April, with unemployment peaking near 7.5% that summer, the worst
reading since the 1930s. The Post Office raised first-class postage to 4
cents that August 1, up from 3 cents, the rate’s first change since 1932.
Washington answered the Soviet Union’s technological lead that summer
too: Eisenhower signed the National Aeronautics and Space Act on July 29,
establishing NASA, which opened for business that October 1 to compete
with the Soviet space program after the shock of Sputnik the year before.
Consumer prices finished 1958 191.9% above their 1913
level. The minimum wage held at $1.00 an hour, and first-class postage
rose to 4 cents that August, the first increase since 1932.
MLA: “Inflation from 1957 to 1958: $100 is worth $103 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1957-to-1958/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1957 to 1958. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1957-to-1958/