$100 in 1957 is worth $370 in 1984,
because prices increased 269.8% over that period, an average of
4.96% a year.
$100 in 1957 has
the same buying power as
$370
in 1984
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
269.8%
Average inflation rate
4.96% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$370
Price difference ($100 base)
$270
CPI in 1957
28.1
CPI in 1984
103.9
Inflation in 1957
3.31%
Inflation in 1984
4.32%
$100 in 1957 → 1984
$370
$100 in 1984 → 1957
$27.05
What happened to prices between 1957 and 1984
Between 1957 and 1984, the Consumer Price Index went from 28.1 to 103.9.
Cumulatively, prices increased 269.8%, which works out to an average of
4.96% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1957 bought what
$0.27 buys in 1984: the 1957 dollar
lost 73.0% of its purchasing power over
these 27 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 1984 at the same ratio, 3.70: $1,000 becomes
$3,698, and $10,000 becomes $36,975.
Amount in 1957
Value in 1984
$1.00
$3.70
$5.00
$18.49
$10.00
$36.98
$20.00
$73.95
$50.00
$185
$100
$370
$500
$1,849
$1,000
$3,698
$5,000
$18,488
$10,000
$36,975
$100,000
$369,751
$1,000,000
$3,697,509
Inflation by spending category, 1957–1984
Between 1957 and 1984, medical care rose the most, up 442.1%, while apparel rose the least, up 129.4%, against 269.8% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1957
spending costs in 1984, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1957 →
All items (CPI-U)
4.96%
$370
Medical care
6.46%
$542
Energy
5.89%
$469
Transportation
5.01%
$374
Core (all items less food & energy)
4.88%
$362
Food
4.83%
$357
Apparel
3.12%
$229
Not shown because the BLS began these indexes after 1957: housing (1967–), recreation (1993–), education & communication (1993–).
Decade by decade: 1957 to 1984
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 1957–1984 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
1980–1984
5.97%
26.1%
$370
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1957
$100 from 1957 had already become $138 by
1970, on its way to $370 in 1984; 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 1984, prices rose 4.3% and $100 from 1957 had the buying
power of $370; the year's average CPI of 103.9 is the level
behind every 1984 figure on this page.
1984 was the year the recovery became a boom. Real GDP grew 7.2%, the
fastest calendar-year growth since 1951, as the tax cuts passed in 1981
combined with falling interest rates and rebuilding consumer confidence.
Unemployment, which had topped 10.8% just two years earlier, fell below
7.5%. Inflation ticked up to 4.3% from 3.2% the year before, but nothing
close to a return of the 1970s wage-price spiral: the Federal Reserve under
Paul Volcker kept policy tight enough to hold the line while growth ran hot.
The strength of the expansion, branded “Morning in America” in President
Reagan’s reelection campaign, carried him to a 49-state landslide over
Walter Mondale that November, at the time the widest electoral-vote margin
in U.S. history. For households, the numbers behind the slogan were
concrete: median income rose to about $22,400, and a gallon of gas cost
$1.13, roughly what it had cost three years earlier even as wages kept
climbing. The contrast with 1980, when 13.5% inflation and interest rates
near 20% had defined the economy, could not have been sharper.
MLA: “Inflation from 1957 to 1984: $100 is worth $370 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1957-to-1984/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1957 to 1984. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1957-to-1984/