$100 in 1957 is worth $202 in 1976,
because prices increased 102.5% over that period, an average of
3.78% a year.
$100 in 1957 has
the same buying power as
$202
in 1976
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
102.5%
Average inflation rate
3.78% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$202
Price difference ($100 base)
$102
CPI in 1957
28.1
CPI in 1976
56.9
Inflation in 1957
3.31%
Inflation in 1976
5.76%
$100 in 1957 → 1976
$202
$100 in 1976 → 1957
$49.38
What happened to prices between 1957 and 1976
Between 1957 and 1976, the Consumer Price Index went from 28.1 to 56.9.
Cumulatively, prices increased 102.5%, which works out to an average of
3.78% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1957 bought what
$0.49 buys in 1976: the 1957 dollar
lost 50.6% of its purchasing power over
these 19 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 1976 at the same ratio, 2.02: $1,000 becomes
$2,025, and $10,000 becomes $20,249.
Amount in 1957
Value in 1976
$1.00
$2.02
$5.00
$10.12
$10.00
$20.25
$20.00
$40.50
$50.00
$101
$100
$202
$500
$1,012
$1,000
$2,025
$5,000
$10,125
$10,000
$20,249
$100,000
$202,491
$1,000,000
$2,024,911
Inflation by spending category, 1957–1976
Between 1957 and 1976, medical care rose the most, up 164.0%, while apparel rose the least, up 69.0%, against 102.5% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1957
spending costs in 1976, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1957 →
All items (CPI-U)
3.78%
$202
Medical care
5.24%
$264
Food
4.06%
$213
Energy
3.98%
$210
Transportation
3.69%
$199
Core (all items less food & energy)
3.68%
$199
Apparel
2.80%
$169
Not shown because the BLS began these indexes after 1957: housing (1967–), recreation (1993–), education & communication (1993–).
Decade by decade: 1957 to 1976
Prices climbed fastest in the 1970s, averaging 6.59% a year, and slowest in the 1950s (1.75% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1957–1976 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
1970–1976
6.59%
46.6%
$202
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1957
$100 from 1957 had already become $115 by
1966, on its way to $202 in 1976; 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 1976, prices rose 5.8% and $100 from 1957 had the buying
power of $202; the year's average CPI of 56.9 is the level
behind every 1976 figure on this page.
Consumer prices rose 5.8% in 1976, the calmest pace since 1972,
as the economy pulled out of the 1973-75 recession and price growth settled
to roughly half its 1974 peak. The recovery gave Americans
room to celebrate: tall ships filled New York Harbor and fireworks lit cities
nationwide on July 4 for the country’s bicentennial, a rare moment of shared
celebration after Vietnam and Watergate. Politically, Jimmy Carter, a former
Georgia governor running as a Washington outsider, defeated incumbent Gerald
Ford that November, campaigning on restoring trust in government and bringing
down inflation and unemployment together. In a California garage, Steve
Jobs, Steve Wozniak, and Ronald Wayne founded Apple Computer that April to
sell the Apple I, a bare circuit board aimed at electronics hobbyists, a
business that looked far from consequential at the time. First-class
postage, which had risen to 13 cents that past December 31, held there
through the year, the longest stretch without a rate change since the Postal
Service’s creation. A median household earned $12,686 in 1976, a new home
sold for a median $44,200, and gas averaged 59 cents a gallon. Consumer
prices stood 474.7% above their 1913 level, a calm interlude
before inflation turned back up.
MLA: “Inflation from 1957 to 1976: $100 is worth $202 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1957-to-1976/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1957 to 1976. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1957-to-1976/