$100 in 1957 is worth $343 in 1982,
because prices increased 243.4% over that period, an average of
5.06% a year.
$100 in 1957 has
the same buying power as
$343
in 1982
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
243.4%
Average inflation rate
5.06% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$343
Price difference ($100 base)
$243
CPI in 1957
28.1
CPI in 1982
96.5
Inflation in 1957
3.31%
Inflation in 1982
6.16%
$100 in 1957 → 1982
$343
$100 in 1982 → 1957
$29.12
What happened to prices between 1957 and 1982
Between 1957 and 1982, the Consumer Price Index went from 28.1 to 96.5.
Cumulatively, prices increased 243.4%, which works out to an average of
5.06% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1957 bought what
$0.29 buys in 1982: the 1957 dollar
lost 70.9% of its purchasing power over
these 25 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 1982 at the same ratio, 3.43: $1,000 becomes
$3,434, and $10,000 becomes $34,342.
Amount in 1957
Value in 1982
$1.00
$3.43
$5.00
$17.17
$10.00
$34.34
$20.00
$68.68
$50.00
$172
$100
$343
$500
$1,717
$1,000
$3,434
$5,000
$17,171
$10,000
$34,342
$100,000
$343,416
$1,000,000
$3,434,164
Inflation by spending category, 1957–1982
Between 1957 and 1982, medical care rose the most, up 369.5%, while apparel rose the least, up 119.8%, against 243.4% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1957
spending costs in 1982, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1957 →
All items (CPI-U)
5.06%
$343
Medical care
6.38%
$470
Energy
6.31%
$461
Transportation
5.14%
$350
Food
4.98%
$337
Core (all items less food & energy)
4.91%
$331
Apparel
3.20%
$220
Not shown because the BLS began these indexes after 1957: housing (1967–), recreation (1993–), education & communication (1993–).
Decade by decade: 1957 to 1982
Prices climbed fastest in the 1980s, averaging 8.22% a year, and slowest in the 1950s (1.75% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1957–1982 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
1980–1982
8.22%
17.1%
$343
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1957
$100 from 1957 had already become $131 by
1969, on its way to $343 in 1982; 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 1982, prices rose 6.2% and $100 from 1957 had the buying
power of $343; the year's average CPI of 96.5 is the level
behind every 1982 figure on this page.
1982 was the hard bottom of the disinflation Paul Volcker had set in motion.
Consumer prices rose just 6.2% for the year, roughly half of 1981’s rate and a
fraction of the 13.5% peak from two years earlier. The price fell because
demand had been crushed: the recession that began in July 1981 did not
officially end until November 1982, and unemployment kept climbing even as
the economy technically began to recover, reaching 10.8% in November and
December, the highest rate since the Great Depression. Manufacturing and
construction, especially the auto and housing industries starved of credit by
double-digit interest rates, bore the worst of it. Abroad, Mexico’s August
announcement that it could not service its foreign debt opened a Latin
American debt crisis that spread across the region and forced the Federal
Reserve and IMF into emergency lending. The stress on the financial system
pushed Volcker to start easing interest rates that October, stepping back
from the strict money-supply targets he had followed since 1979. Markets read
the shift correctly: the Dow Jones Industrial Average bottomed at 776.92 in
mid-August, and the rally that followed became the opening leg of the 1980s
bull market. By year’s end, the trade-off Volcker had bet on was becoming
visible: much lower inflation, at the cost of the worst unemployment in 40
years.
MLA: “Inflation from 1957 to 1982: $100 is worth $343 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1957-to-1982/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1957 to 1982. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1957-to-1982/