$100 in 1957 is worth $527 in 1994,
because prices increased 427.4% over that period, an average of
4.60% a year.
$100 in 1957 has
the same buying power as
$527
in 1994
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
427.4%
Average inflation rate
4.60% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$527
Price difference ($100 base)
$427
CPI in 1957
28.1
CPI in 1994
148.2
Inflation in 1957
3.31%
Inflation in 1994
2.56%
$100 in 1957 → 1994
$527
$100 in 1994 → 1957
$18.96
What happened to prices between 1957 and 1994
Between 1957 and 1994, the Consumer Price Index went from 28.1 to 148.2.
Cumulatively, prices increased 427.4%, which works out to an average of
4.60% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1957 bought what
$0.19 buys in 1994: the 1957 dollar
lost 81.0% of its purchasing power over
these 37 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 1994 at the same ratio, 5.27: $1,000 becomes
$5,274, and $10,000 becomes $52,740.
Amount in 1957
Value in 1994
$1.00
$5.27
$5.00
$26.37
$10.00
$52.74
$20.00
$105
$50.00
$264
$100
$527
$500
$2,637
$1,000
$5,274
$5,000
$26,370
$10,000
$52,740
$100,000
$527,402
$1,000,000
$5,274,021
Inflation by spending category, 1957–1994
Between 1957 and 1994, medical care rose the most, up 971.1%, while apparel rose the least, up 199.8%, against 427.4% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1957
spending costs in 1994, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1957 →
All items (CPI-U)
4.60%
$527
Medical care
6.62%
$1,071
Core (all items less food & energy)
4.67%
$542
Food
4.44%
$499
Energy
4.37%
$487
Transportation
4.36%
$485
Apparel
3.01%
$300
Not shown because the BLS began these indexes after 1957: housing (1967–), recreation (1993–), education & communication (1993–).
Decade by decade: 1957 to 1994
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 1957–1994 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
1990–1994
3.19%
13.4%
$527
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1957
$100 from 1957 had already become $191 by
1975, on its way to $527 in 1994; 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: 1994
In 1994, prices rose 2.6% and $100 from 1957 had the buying
power of $527; the year's average CPI of 148.2 is the level
behind every 1994 figure on this page.
Gas averaged $1.11 a gallon in 1994, a new home cost roughly $130,000, and the median household
earned about $32,300. Inflation ran at 2.6% for the year, the calmest reading since the
mid-1980s, even as the Federal Reserve spent the year raising interest rates precisely to keep
it that way. Chair Alan Greenspan’s Fed lifted the federal funds rate from 3% to 5.5% over six
moves, a preemptive tightening campaign meant to head off inflation before it built rather than
react to it after the fact. The bond market, unprepared for such a rapid climb, sold off
sharply, and the higher rates rippled into places few had expected: Orange County, California,
whose investment pool had bet heavily on rates staying low, filed for bankruptcy in December
after losing an estimated $1.7 billion, the largest municipal bankruptcy in the country’s
history at the time. On the trade front, NAFTA took effect January 1, phasing out tariffs on
thousands of goods moving between the U.S., Mexico, and Canada, the start of a schedule that
would eliminate most remaining barriers over the following decade. It was a year that showed
inflation control could have its own costs, paid out in the bond market and, in Orange County’s
case, a bankruptcy court.
MLA: “Inflation from 1957 to 1994: $100 is worth $527 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1957-to-1994/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1957 to 1994. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1957-to-1994/