$100 in 1957 is worth $191 in 1975,
because prices increased 91.5% over that period, an average of
3.67% a year.
$100 in 1957 has
the same buying power as
$191
in 1975
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
91.5%
Average inflation rate
3.67% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$191
Price difference ($100 base)
$91.46
CPI in 1957
28.1
CPI in 1975
53.8
Inflation in 1957
3.31%
Inflation in 1975
9.13%
$100 in 1957 → 1975
$191
$100 in 1975 → 1957
$52.23
What happened to prices between 1957 and 1975
Between 1957 and 1975, the Consumer Price Index went from 28.1 to 53.8.
Cumulatively, prices increased 91.5%, which works out to an average of
3.67% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1957 bought what
$0.52 buys in 1975: the 1957 dollar
lost 47.8% of its purchasing power over
these 18 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 1975 at the same ratio, 1.91: $1,000 becomes
$1,915, and $10,000 becomes $19,146.
Amount in 1957
Value in 1975
$1.00
$1.91
$5.00
$9.57
$10.00
$19.15
$20.00
$38.29
$50.00
$95.73
$100
$191
$500
$957
$1,000
$1,915
$5,000
$9,573
$10,000
$19,146
$100,000
$191,459
$1,000,000
$1,914,591
Inflation by spending category, 1957–1975
Between 1957 and 1975, medical care rose the most, up 141.1%, while apparel rose the least, up 62.9%, against 91.5% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1957
spending costs in 1975, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1957 →
All items (CPI-U)
3.67%
$191
Medical care
5.01%
$241
Food
4.12%
$207
Energy
3.80%
$196
Core (all items less food & energy)
3.52%
$187
Transportation
3.35%
$181
Apparel
2.75%
$163
Not shown because the BLS began these indexes after 1957: housing (1967–), recreation (1993–), education & communication (1993–).
Decade by decade: 1957 to 1975
Prices climbed fastest in the 1970s, averaging 6.76% a year, and slowest in the 1950s (1.75% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1957–1975 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
1970–1975
6.76%
38.7%
$191
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1957
$100 from 1957 had already become $115 by
1966, on its way to $191 in 1975; 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 1975, prices rose 9.1% and $100 from 1957 had the buying
power of $191; the year's average CPI of 53.8 is the level
behind every 1975 figure on this page.
Consumer prices rose 9.1% in 1975, easing slightly from 1974’s
11.0% but still running far above anything the country had experienced before
the decade began. The recession that started in November 1973, the deepest
since the Great Depression, bottomed out that March, yet unemployment kept
climbing through the year and touched 9%, a combination of high inflation and
high joblessness that had no precedent in the postwar data. Vietnam ended
that April 30, when North Vietnamese forces captured Saigon and the last
Americans were evacuated by helicopter from the U.S. embassy roof. Fiscal
strain hit closer to home too: New York City, facing bankruptcy after years
of borrowing to paper over budget gaps, asked Washington for help that
October. President Ford’s initial refusal produced the Daily News headline
“Ford to City: Drop Dead,” though he ultimately signed a federal loan package
that December. Amid the gloom, Bill Gates and Paul Allen founded Microsoft
that April in Albuquerque, New Mexico, to sell a version of the BASIC
programming language for the Altair 8800, one of the first personal
computers sold to hobbyists. A median household earned $11,800 in 1975, a new
home sold for a median $39,300, and first-class postage held at 10 cents,
unchanged since 1974’s increase. Consumer prices stood 443.4%
above their 1913 level, with the decade barely past its
midpoint.
MLA: “Inflation from 1957 to 1975: $100 is worth $191 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1957-to-1975/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1957 to 1975. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1957-to-1975/