$100 in 1957 is worth $499 in 1992,
because prices increased 399.3% over that period, an average of
4.70% a year.
$100 in 1957 has
the same buying power as
$499
in 1992
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
399.3%
Average inflation rate
4.70% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$499
Price difference ($100 base)
$399
CPI in 1957
28.1
CPI in 1992
140.3
Inflation in 1957
3.31%
Inflation in 1992
3.01%
$100 in 1957 → 1992
$499
$100 in 1992 → 1957
$20.03
What happened to prices between 1957 and 1992
Between 1957 and 1992, the Consumer Price Index went from 28.1 to 140.3.
Cumulatively, prices increased 399.3%, which works out to an average of
4.70% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1957 bought what
$0.20 buys in 1992: the 1957 dollar
lost 80.0% of its purchasing power over
these 35 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 1992 at the same ratio, 4.99: $1,000 becomes
$4,993, and $10,000 becomes $49,929.
Amount in 1957
Value in 1992
$1.00
$4.99
$5.00
$24.96
$10.00
$49.93
$20.00
$99.86
$50.00
$250
$100
$499
$500
$2,496
$1,000
$4,993
$5,000
$24,964
$10,000
$49,929
$100,000
$499,288
$1,000,000
$4,992,883
Inflation by spending category, 1957–1992
Between 1957 and 1992, medical care rose the most, up 865.0%, while apparel rose the least, up 196.4%, against 399.3% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1957
spending costs in 1992, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1957 →
All items (CPI-U)
4.70%
$499
Medical care
6.69%
$965
Core (all items less food & energy)
4.76%
$510
Energy
4.58%
$479
Food
4.57%
$477
Transportation
4.43%
$457
Apparel
3.15%
$296
Not shown because the BLS began these indexes after 1957: housing (1967–), recreation (1993–), education & communication (1993–).
Decade by decade: 1957 to 1992
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 1957–1992 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
1990–1992
3.61%
7.3%
$499
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1957
$100 from 1957 had already become $191 by
1975, on its way to $499 in 1992; 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: 1992
In 1992, prices rose 3.0% and $100 from 1957 had the buying
power of $499; the year's average CPI of 140.3 is the level
behind every 1992 figure on this page.
1992 was the year the recovery finally showed up in the numbers, if not yet in hiring. The
median household earned about $30,600, gas averaged $1.13 a gallon, and a new home cost roughly
$121,500. Inflation ran at 3.0% for the year, its calmest reading since the mid-1980s, as energy
prices stayed well below their 1990 peak and a slack labor market kept a lid on wages and prices
alike. The Federal Reserve kept cutting its policy rate through the year, reaching about 3% by
September, the lowest in decades, trying to jump-start hiring more than a year after the 1990-91
recession officially ended. The sluggish job market became the defining issue of the November
election, and Bill Clinton unseated incumbent George H.W. Bush, whose approval ratings had
fallen sharply from their post-Gulf War highs. In August, Hurricane Andrew tore through South
Florida, the costliest U.S. hurricane on record at the time, causing tens of billions of dollars
in damage and reshaping how insurers priced catastrophe risk for years afterward. Falling rates,
a costly hurricane, and an election fought over jobs defined a recovery that showed up in the
data well before it showed up in most paychecks.
MLA: “Inflation from 1957 to 1992: $100 is worth $499 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1957-to-1992/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1957 to 1992. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1957-to-1992/