$100 in 1957 is worth $354 in 1983,
because prices increased 254.4% over that period, an average of
4.99% a year.
$100 in 1957 has
the same buying power as
$354
in 1983
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
254.4%
Average inflation rate
4.99% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$354
Price difference ($100 base)
$254
CPI in 1957
28.1
CPI in 1983
99.6
Inflation in 1957
3.31%
Inflation in 1983
3.21%
$100 in 1957 → 1983
$354
$100 in 1983 → 1957
$28.21
What happened to prices between 1957 and 1983
Between 1957 and 1983, the Consumer Price Index went from 28.1 to 99.6.
Cumulatively, prices increased 254.4%, which works out to an average of
4.99% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1957 bought what
$0.28 buys in 1983: the 1957 dollar
lost 71.8% of its purchasing power over
these 26 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 1983 at the same ratio, 3.54: $1,000 becomes
$3,544, and $10,000 becomes $35,445.
Amount in 1957
Value in 1983
$1.00
$3.54
$5.00
$17.72
$10.00
$35.44
$20.00
$70.89
$50.00
$177
$100
$354
$500
$1,772
$1,000
$3,544
$5,000
$17,722
$10,000
$35,445
$100,000
$354,448
$1,000,000
$3,544,484
Inflation by spending category, 1957–1983
Between 1957 and 1983, medical care rose the most, up 410.7%, while apparel rose the least, up 125.2%, against 254.4% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1957
spending costs in 1983, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1957 →
All items (CPI-U)
4.99%
$354
Medical care
6.47%
$511
Energy
6.09%
$465
Transportation
5.03%
$358
Core (all items less food & energy)
4.87%
$345
Food
4.87%
$344
Apparel
3.17%
$225
Not shown because the BLS began these indexes after 1957: housing (1967–), recreation (1993–), education & communication (1993–).
Decade by decade: 1957 to 1983
Prices climbed fastest in the 1970s, averaging 7.82% a year, and slowest in the 1950s (1.75% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1957–1983 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
1980–1983
6.52%
20.9%
$354
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1957
$100 from 1957 had already become $138 by
1970, on its way to $354 in 1983; 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 1983, prices rose 3.2% and $100 from 1957 had the buying
power of $354; the year's average CPI of 99.6 is the level
behind every 1983 figure on this page.
1983 confirmed that the Volcker disinflation was not a one-year fluke.
Consumer prices rose 3.2% for the year, nearly identical to 1982’s pace and a
fraction of the double-digit rates of 1980 and 1981. With inflation tamed and
interest rates coming down, the economy roared back from the 1981-82
recession: real GDP grew 4.6%, the strongest calendar-year growth since the
1950s, and unemployment fell from its 10.8% peak to 8.3% by December. Housing
and auto sales, both starved of credit during the recession, led the
rebound. In April, Congress and President Reagan enacted the Social Security
Amendments of 1983, a bipartisan rescue of a system projected to run out of
money within months. The law gradually raised the full retirement age from
65 to 67, began taxing benefits for higher-income retirees, and delayed that
year’s cost-of-living adjustment by six months. For a program whose benefits
had been indexed to the CPI since 1975, the amendments were the first major
sign that inflation-proofing Social Security carried a cost Congress could
not simply legislate away. By year’s end, gas averaged $1.16 a gallon and
mailing a letter still cost 20 cents, prices that had barely moved since
1981, a sharp break from the constant increases of the previous decade.
MLA: “Inflation from 1957 to 1983: $100 is worth $354 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1957-to-1983/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1957 to 1983. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1957-to-1983/