$100 in 1957 is worth $323 in 1981,
because prices increased 223.5% over that period, an average of
5.01% a year.
$100 in 1957 has
the same buying power as
$323
in 1981
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
223.5%
Average inflation rate
5.01% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$323
Price difference ($100 base)
$223
CPI in 1957
28.1
CPI in 1981
90.9
Inflation in 1957
3.31%
Inflation in 1981
10.32%
$100 in 1957 → 1981
$323
$100 in 1981 → 1957
$30.91
What happened to prices between 1957 and 1981
Between 1957 and 1981, the Consumer Price Index went from 28.1 to 90.9.
Cumulatively, prices increased 223.5%, which works out to an average of
5.01% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1957 bought what
$0.31 buys in 1981: the 1957 dollar
lost 69.1% of its purchasing power over
these 24 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 1981 at the same ratio, 3.23: $1,000 becomes
$3,235, and $10,000 becomes $32,349.
Amount in 1957
Value in 1981
$1.00
$3.23
$5.00
$16.17
$10.00
$32.35
$20.00
$64.70
$50.00
$162
$100
$323
$500
$1,617
$1,000
$3,235
$5,000
$16,174
$10,000
$32,349
$100,000
$323,488
$1,000,000
$3,234,875
Inflation by spending category, 1957–1981
Between 1957 and 1981, energy rose the most, up 354.4%, while apparel rose the least, up 114.2%, against 223.5% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1957
spending costs in 1981, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1957 →
All items (CPI-U)
5.01%
$323
Energy
6.51%
$454
Medical care
6.17%
$421
Transportation
5.19%
$336
Food
5.02%
$324
Core (all items less food & energy)
4.81%
$309
Apparel
3.22%
$214
Not shown because the BLS began these indexes after 1957: housing (1967–), recreation (1993–), education & communication (1993–).
Decade by decade: 1957 to 1981
Prices climbed fastest in the 1980s, averaging 10.32% a year, and slowest in the 1950s (1.75% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1957–1981 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
1970–1980
7.82%
112.4%
$293
1980–1981
10.32%
10.3%
$323
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1957
$100 from 1957 had already become $131 by
1969, on its way to $323 in 1981; each row shows the CPI, that
year's inflation rate, and the running value.
Within the span, inflation peaked at 13.5% in 1980, and the smallest rise was 0.7% in 1959.
In 1981, prices rose 10.3% and $100 from 1957 had the buying
power of $323; the year's average CPI of 90.9 is the level
behind every 1981 figure on this page.
1981 was the year the inflation fever finally broke, at an extraordinary price.
Consumer prices rose 10.3%, the second year of back-to-back double-digit
inflation and the last time the U.S. would see one. To end it, Paul Volcker’s
Federal Reserve drove its policy rate above 19% and let borrowing costs go
where they may: a 30-year mortgage cost more than 18% by autumn, car loans and
business credit froze, and homebuilders mailed the Fed two-by-fours in protest.
The squeeze tipped the economy into recession in July, the deep 1981–82
downturn that would push unemployment past 10%. But it worked. Inflation fell
by nearly half within a year and to under 4% by 1983, the disinflation that
defined the following two decades. Even the price of mailing a letter told the
year’s story: postage went up twice in eight months.
MLA: “Inflation from 1957 to 1981: $100 is worth $323 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1957-to-1981/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1957 to 1981. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1957-to-1981/