$100 in 1957 is worth $485 in 1991,
because prices increased 384.7% over that period, an average of
4.75% a year.
$100 in 1957 has
the same buying power as
$485
in 1991
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
384.7%
Average inflation rate
4.75% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$485
Price difference ($100 base)
$385
CPI in 1957
28.1
CPI in 1991
136.2
Inflation in 1957
3.31%
Inflation in 1991
4.21%
$100 in 1957 → 1991
$485
$100 in 1991 → 1957
$20.63
What happened to prices between 1957 and 1991
Between 1957 and 1991, the Consumer Price Index went from 28.1 to 136.2.
Cumulatively, prices increased 384.7%, which works out to an average of
4.75% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1957 bought what
$0.21 buys in 1991: the 1957 dollar
lost 79.4% of its purchasing power over
these 34 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 1991 at the same ratio, 4.85: $1,000 becomes
$4,847, and $10,000 becomes $48,470.
Amount in 1957
Value in 1991
$1.00
$4.85
$5.00
$24.23
$10.00
$48.47
$20.00
$96.94
$50.00
$242
$100
$485
$500
$2,423
$1,000
$4,847
$5,000
$24,235
$10,000
$48,470
$100,000
$484,698
$1,000,000
$4,846,975
Inflation by spending category, 1957–1991
Between 1957 and 1991, medical care rose the most, up 798.5%, while apparel rose the least, up 189.2%, against 384.7% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1957
spending costs in 1991, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1957 →
All items (CPI-U)
4.75%
$485
Medical care
6.67%
$898
Core (all items less food & energy)
4.80%
$492
Energy
4.70%
$477
Food
4.67%
$472
Transportation
4.50%
$447
Apparel
3.17%
$289
Not shown because the BLS began these indexes after 1957: housing (1967–), recreation (1993–), education & communication (1993–).
Decade by decade: 1957 to 1991
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 1957–1991 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
1980–1990
4.72%
58.6%
$465
1990–1991
4.21%
4.2%
$485
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1957
$100 from 1957 had already become $158 by
1973, on its way to $485 in 1991; 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: 1991
In 1991, prices rose 4.2% and $100 from 1957 had the buying
power of $485; the year's average CPI of 136.2 is the level
behind every 1991 figure on this page.
1991 opened in recession and closed in a slow, uneven recovery. The median household earned
about $30,100 for the year, gas averaged $1.14 a gallon, and a new home cost roughly $120,000.
Inflation ran at 4.2% for the year, down from 1990’s oil-driven spike, as the Gulf War ended in
February and crude oil retreated from its autumn highs. The recession itself, dated by the
National Bureau of Economic Research from July 1990 to March 1991, was technically over by
spring, but hiring stayed weak well into 1992, the stretch economists came to call the jobless
recovery. The Federal Reserve kept cutting interest rates through the year to support growth,
reversing the tightening campaign it had run through the late 1980s. In April the federal
minimum wage rose to $4.25 an hour, the second step of an increase from the $3.35 rate that had
held since 1981. The Postal Service had already raised the cost of a first-class stamp to 29
cents that February. It was the first full year of the decade without an oil shock driving
prices, even if the job market took longer to follow.
MLA: “Inflation from 1957 to 1991: $100 is worth $485 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1957-to-1991/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1957 to 1991. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1957-to-1991/