$100 in 1957 is worth $158 in 1973,
because prices increased 58.0% over that period, an average of
2.90% a year.
$100 in 1957 has
the same buying power as
$158
in 1973
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
58.0%
Average inflation rate
2.90% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$158
Price difference ($100 base)
$58.01
CPI in 1957
28.1
CPI in 1973
44.4
Inflation in 1957
3.31%
Inflation in 1973
6.22%
$100 in 1957 → 1973
$158
$100 in 1973 → 1957
$63.29
What happened to prices between 1957 and 1973
Between 1957 and 1973, the Consumer Price Index went from 28.1 to 44.4.
Cumulatively, prices increased 58.0%, which works out to an average of
2.90% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1957 bought what
$0.63 buys in 1973: the 1957 dollar
lost 36.7% of its purchasing power over
these 16 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 1973 at the same ratio, 1.58: $1,000 becomes
$1,580, and $10,000 becomes $15,801.
Amount in 1957
Value in 1973
$1.00
$1.58
$5.00
$7.90
$10.00
$15.80
$20.00
$31.60
$50.00
$79.00
$100
$158
$500
$790
$1,000
$1,580
$5,000
$7,900
$10,000
$15,801
$100,000
$158,007
$1,000,000
$1,580,071
Inflation by spending category, 1957–1973
Between 1957 and 1973, medical care rose the most, up 97.0%, while energy rose the least, up 36.7%, against 58.0% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1957
spending costs in 1973, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1957 →
All items (CPI-U)
2.90%
$158
Medical care
4.33%
$197
Food
3.25%
$167
Core (all items less food & energy)
2.89%
$158
Transportation
2.51%
$149
Apparel
2.36%
$145
Energy
1.98%
$137
Not shown because the BLS began these indexes after 1957: housing (1967–), recreation (1993–), education & communication (1993–).
Decade by decade: 1957 to 1973
Prices climbed fastest in the 1970s, averaging 4.60% a year, and slowest in the 1950s (1.75% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1957–1973 change:
Years
Avg. yearly inflation
Price change
$100 from 1957, at end
1957–1960
1.75%
5.3%
$105
1960–1970
2.74%
31.1%
$138
1970–1973
4.60%
14.4%
$158
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1957
$100 from 1957 had already become $112 by
1965, on its way to $158 in 1973; each row shows the CPI, that
year's inflation rate, and the running value.
Within the span, inflation peaked at 6.2% in 1973, and the smallest rise was 0.7% in 1959.
In 1973, prices rose 6.2% and $100 from 1957 had the buying
power of $158; the year's average CPI of 44.4 is the level
behind every 1973 figure on this page.
Consumer prices rose 6.2% in 1973, nearly double 1972’s 3.2%,
as Nixon’s wage and price controls were phased out through the year and
pressure the controls had been holding back broke loose. The bigger shock
arrived that October, when Arab oil-producing states embargoed exports to the
United States and other supporters of Israel in the Yom Kippur War. Crude
oil, which had traded around $3 a barrel, approached $12 by early 1974, and
gas lines became a fixture outside filling stations nationwide. Earlier in
the year, the Paris Peace Accords, signed that January 27, ended direct
American combat in Vietnam and set a 60-day deadline for withdrawing
remaining U.S. troops, even as fighting between North and South Vietnam went
on. Financial markets read the year correctly as a turning point: the Dow
Jones Industrial Average peaked at 1,051.70 on January 11, a level it would
not reach again until 1980, before the oil shock and rising interest rates
dragged it into a two-year bear market. A median household earned $10,512 in
1973, a new home sold for a median $32,500, and gas averaged 38.5 cents a
gallon, still under half of what the embargo’s effects would bring the
following year. Consumer prices stood 348.5% above their
1913 level by year’s end, with the decade’s worst inflation
still ahead.
MLA: “Inflation from 1957 to 1973: $100 is worth $158 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1957-to-1973/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1957 to 1973. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1957-to-1973/