$100 in 1957 is worth $514 in 1993,
because prices increased 414.2% over that period, an average of
4.65% a year.
$100 in 1957 has
the same buying power as
$514
in 1993
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
414.2%
Average inflation rate
4.65% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$514
Price difference ($100 base)
$414
CPI in 1957
28.1
CPI in 1993
144.5
Inflation in 1957
3.31%
Inflation in 1993
2.99%
$100 in 1957 → 1993
$514
$100 in 1993 → 1957
$19.45
What happened to prices between 1957 and 1993
Between 1957 and 1993, the Consumer Price Index went from 28.1 to 144.5.
Cumulatively, prices increased 414.2%, which works out to an average of
4.65% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1957 bought what
$0.19 buys in 1993: the 1957 dollar
lost 80.6% of its purchasing power over
these 36 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 1993 at the same ratio, 5.14: $1,000 becomes
$5,142, and $10,000 becomes $51,423.
Amount in 1957
Value in 1993
$1.00
$5.14
$5.00
$25.71
$10.00
$51.42
$20.00
$103
$50.00
$257
$100
$514
$500
$2,571
$1,000
$5,142
$5,000
$25,712
$10,000
$51,423
$100,000
$514,235
$1,000,000
$5,142,349
Inflation by spending category, 1957–1993
Between 1957 and 1993, medical care rose the most, up 922.3%, while apparel rose the least, up 200.4%, against 414.2% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1957
spending costs in 1993, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1957 →
All items (CPI-U)
4.65%
$514
Medical care
6.67%
$1,022
Core (all items less food & energy)
4.72%
$527
Food
4.50%
$488
Energy
4.48%
$485
Transportation
4.40%
$471
Apparel
3.10%
$300
Not shown because the BLS began these indexes after 1957: housing (1967–), recreation (1993–), education & communication (1993–).
Decade by decade: 1957 to 1993
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 1957–1993 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
1990–1993
3.40%
10.6%
$514
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1957
$100 from 1957 had already become $191 by
1975, on its way to $514 in 1993; 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: 1993
In 1993, prices rose 3.0% and $100 from 1957 had the buying
power of $514; the year's average CPI of 144.5 is the level
behind every 1993 figure on this page.
By 1993, the median household earned about $31,200, gas averaged $1.11 a gallon, and a new home
cost roughly $126,500. Inflation ran at 3.0% for the year, holding close to where it had settled
the year before as the recovery slowly gathered strength. Washington spent much of the year on
two pieces of unfinished business from the recession: a deficit-reduction package, the Omnibus
Budget Reconciliation Act, that raised the top income tax rate to 39.6% to start narrowing a
budget gap left over from the 1980s, and a trade deal, the North American Free Trade Agreement,
that President Clinton signed into law in December after a contentious fight in Congress. NAFTA
phased out most tariffs between the U.S., Mexico, and Canada and took effect the following
January. The year’s other defining event had nothing to do with the economy: in February, a bomb
exploded in the World Trade Center’s parking garage, killing six people and injuring more than a
thousand. By year’s end, the pieces of the decade’s later economic story, freer trade, a
shrinking deficit, and inflation holding near 3%, were already in place.
MLA: “Inflation from 1957 to 1993: $100 is worth $514 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1957-to-1993/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1957 to 1993. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1957-to-1993/