$100 in 1957 is worth $175 in 1974,
because prices increased 75.4% over that period, an average of
3.36% a year.
$100 in 1957 has
the same buying power as
$175
in 1974
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
75.4%
Average inflation rate
3.36% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$175
Price difference ($100 base)
$75.44
CPI in 1957
28.1
CPI in 1974
49.3
Inflation in 1957
3.31%
Inflation in 1974
11.04%
$100 in 1957 → 1974
$175
$100 in 1974 → 1957
$57.00
What happened to prices between 1957 and 1974
Between 1957 and 1974, the Consumer Price Index went from 28.1 to 49.3.
Cumulatively, prices increased 75.4%, which works out to an average of
3.36% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1957 bought what
$0.57 buys in 1974: the 1957 dollar
lost 43.0% of its purchasing power over
these 17 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 1974 at the same ratio, 1.75: $1,000 becomes
$1,754, and $10,000 becomes $17,544.
Amount in 1957
Value in 1974
$1.00
$1.75
$5.00
$8.77
$10.00
$17.54
$20.00
$35.09
$50.00
$87.72
$100
$175
$500
$877
$1,000
$1,754
$5,000
$8,772
$10,000
$17,544
$100,000
$175,445
$1,000,000
$1,754,448
Inflation by spending category, 1957–1974
Between 1957 and 1974, medical care rose the most, up 115.2%, while apparel rose the least, up 56.0%, against 75.4% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1957
spending costs in 1974, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1957 →
All items (CPI-U)
3.36%
$175
Medical care
4.61%
$215
Food
3.87%
$191
Energy
3.42%
$177
Core (all items less food & energy)
3.20%
$171
Transportation
3.00%
$165
Apparel
2.65%
$156
Not shown because the BLS began these indexes after 1957: housing (1967–), recreation (1993–), education & communication (1993–).
Decade by decade: 1957 to 1974
Prices climbed fastest in the 1970s, averaging 6.17% a year, and slowest in the 1950s (1.75% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1957–1974 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
1970–1974
6.17%
27.1%
$175
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1957
$100 from 1957 had already become $112 by
1965, on its way to $175 in 1974; each row shows the CPI, that
year's inflation rate, and the running value.
Within the span, inflation peaked at 11.0% in 1974, and the smallest rise was 0.7% in 1959.
In 1974, prices rose 11.0% and $100 from 1957 had the buying
power of $175; the year's average CPI of 49.3 is the level
behind every 1974 figure on this page.
1974 was the year the postwar economy broke its old rules. Consumer prices
rose 11.0%, the fastest annual increase since 1947, as the Arab oil embargo
that ran from October 1973 to March 1974 roughly quadrupled the price of
crude oil worldwide. Gasoline, which had averaged 38.5 cents a gallon in
1973, jumped to 53.2 cents, and shortages forced many states into odd-even
rationing at the pump. Nixon’s wage and price controls, in place in some form
since 1971, expired at the end of April, removing the last brake on prices
just as the oil shock hit. Nixon himself resigned in August over Watergate,
and Gerald Ford’s response to inflation, a voluntary “Whip Inflation Now”
campaign built around lapel buttons, became a symbol of how little
conventional politics could do against the problem. Prices kept climbing even
as the economy weakened: a recession that started in November 1973 dragged
on, the Dow fell to a bear-market bottom of 577.60 in December, and
unemployment was already rising toward the 9% it would reach in 1975. The
combination of rising prices and a shrinking economy gave the decade its
name: stagflation.
MLA: “Inflation from 1957 to 1974: $100 is worth $175 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1957-to-1974/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1957 to 1974. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1957-to-1974/