$100 in 1957 is worth $390 in 1986,
because prices increased 290.0% over that period, an average of
4.81% a year.
$100 in 1957 has
the same buying power as
$390
in 1986
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
290.0%
Average inflation rate
4.81% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$390
Price difference ($100 base)
$290
CPI in 1957
28.1
CPI in 1986
109.6
Inflation in 1957
3.31%
Inflation in 1986
1.86%
$100 in 1957 → 1986
$390
$100 in 1986 → 1957
$25.64
What happened to prices between 1957 and 1986
Between 1957 and 1986, the Consumer Price Index went from 28.1 to 109.6.
Cumulatively, prices increased 290.0%, which works out to an average of
4.81% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1957 bought what
$0.26 buys in 1986: the 1957 dollar
lost 74.4% of its purchasing power over
these 29 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 1986 at the same ratio, 3.90: $1,000 becomes
$3,900, and $10,000 becomes $39,004.
Amount in 1957
Value in 1986
$1.00
$3.90
$5.00
$19.50
$10.00
$39.00
$20.00
$78.01
$50.00
$195
$100
$390
$500
$1,950
$1,000
$3,900
$5,000
$19,502
$10,000
$39,004
$100,000
$390,036
$1,000,000
$3,900,356
Inflation by spending category, 1957–1986
Between 1957 and 1986, medical care rose the most, up 519.3%, while apparel rose the least, up 138.0%, against 290.0% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1957
spending costs in 1986, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1957 →
All items (CPI-U)
4.81%
$390
Medical care
6.49%
$619
Energy
4.99%
$410
Core (all items less food & energy)
4.83%
$393
Food
4.68%
$377
Transportation
4.61%
$369
Apparel
3.03%
$238
Not shown because the BLS began these indexes after 1957: housing (1967–), recreation (1993–), education & communication (1993–).
Decade by decade: 1957 to 1986
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 1957–1986 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
1980–1986
4.87%
33.0%
$390
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1957
$100 from 1957 had already become $144 by
1971, on its way to $390 in 1986; 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 1986, prices rose 1.9% and $100 from 1957 had the buying
power of $390; the year's average CPI of 109.6 is the level
behind every 1986 figure on this page.
1986 delivered the decade’s biggest one-year drop in inflation, and it came
almost entirely from a single source: oil. Saudi Arabia abandoned its policy
of restraining output to prop up prices, and world crude collapsed from
about $27 a barrel to under $10 by midyear. Gasoline, which had averaged
$1.12 a gallon in 1985, fell to 86 cents. With energy costs plunging,
headline CPI inflation for the year came in at just 1.9%, the lowest annual
rate since 1965 and a striking bookend to 1980’s 13.5% peak. The relief was
uneven: prices for most goods and services outside energy kept rising at a
moderate pace, so households that didn’t drive much or heat with oil felt
less of the difference. In October, Congress passed the Tax Reform Act of
1986, a bipartisan overhaul that cut the top individual income tax rate from
50% to 28% while closing many deductions and shelters, the broadest rewrite
of the federal tax code since World War II. Between cheap gas and falling
interest rates, 1986 read like proof that the inflationary 1970s were a
closed chapter, six years after the U.S. economy had felt anything but
calm.
MLA: “Inflation from 1957 to 1986: $100 is worth $390 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1957-to-1986/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1957 to 1986. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1957-to-1986/