$100 in 1957 is worth $421 in 1988,
because prices increased 321.0% over that period, an average of
4.75% a year.
$100 in 1957 has
the same buying power as
$421
in 1988
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
321.0%
Average inflation rate
4.75% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$421
Price difference ($100 base)
$321
CPI in 1957
28.1
CPI in 1988
118.3
Inflation in 1957
3.31%
Inflation in 1988
4.14%
$100 in 1957 → 1988
$421
$100 in 1988 → 1957
$23.75
What happened to prices between 1957 and 1988
Between 1957 and 1988, the Consumer Price Index went from 28.1 to 118.3.
Cumulatively, prices increased 321.0%, which works out to an average of
4.75% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1957 bought what
$0.24 buys in 1988: the 1957 dollar
lost 76.2% of its purchasing power over
these 31 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 1988 at the same ratio, 4.21: $1,000 becomes
$4,210, and $10,000 becomes $42,100.
Amount in 1957
Value in 1988
$1.00
$4.21
$5.00
$21.05
$10.00
$42.10
$20.00
$84.20
$50.00
$210
$100
$421
$500
$2,105
$1,000
$4,210
$5,000
$21,050
$10,000
$42,100
$100,000
$420,996
$1,000,000
$4,209,964
Inflation by spending category, 1957–1988
Between 1957 and 1988, medical care rose the most, up 603.6%, while apparel rose the least, up 159.3%, against 321.0% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1957
spending costs in 1988, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1957 →
All items (CPI-U)
4.75%
$421
Medical care
6.50%
$704
Core (all items less food & energy)
4.79%
$427
Energy
4.70%
$415
Food
4.65%
$409
Transportation
4.51%
$392
Apparel
3.12%
$259
Not shown because the BLS began these indexes after 1957: housing (1967–), recreation (1993–), education & communication (1993–).
Decade by decade: 1957 to 1988
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 1957–1988 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
1980–1988
4.62%
43.6%
$421
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1957
$100 from 1957 had already become $158 by
1973, on its way to $421 in 1988; 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.
Long periods are sampled every 2 years; the calculator above covers any pair of years.
The destination year: 1988
In 1988, prices rose 4.1% and $100 from 1957 had the buying
power of $421; the year's average CPI of 118.3 is the level
behind every 1988 figure on this page.
By 1988, the economic expansion that began in the ashes of the 1981-82
recession was in its sixth year, and the Federal Reserve was watching for
signs it had run too long. Inflation rose to 4.1%, up from 3.6% the year
before, while unemployment fell to its lowest level since 1974. Alan
Greenspan’s Fed responded by raising the federal funds rate through the
year, from about 6.5% to 8.5%, trying to cool demand before prices
accelerated the way they had in the 1970s. Households still felt the
difference between this expansion and the last one: gas held near 90 cents
a gallon, almost exactly its 1987 price, and median household income rose
to roughly $27,200. The one price that moved was postage, which rose from
22 to 25 cents in April, the fourth increase of the decade but a far
gentler pace than the string of increases in the late 1970s and early
1980s. In November, Vice President George H.W. Bush won the presidency on
the strength of the expansion, promising in his nomination speech to hold
the line on taxes. Both the boom and that pledge would run into trouble
within two years, as the Fed’s rate increases helped tip the economy toward
the 1990-91 recession.
MLA: “Inflation from 1957 to 1988: $100 is worth $421 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1957-to-1988/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1957 to 1988. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1957-to-1988/