$100 in 1957 is worth $542 in 1995,
because prices increased 442.3% over that period, an average of
4.55% a year.
$100 in 1957 has
the same buying power as
$542
in 1995
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
442.3%
Average inflation rate
4.55% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$542
Price difference ($100 base)
$442
CPI in 1957
28.1
CPI in 1995
152.4
Inflation in 1957
3.31%
Inflation in 1995
2.83%
$100 in 1957 → 1995
$542
$100 in 1995 → 1957
$18.44
What happened to prices between 1957 and 1995
Between 1957 and 1995, the Consumer Price Index went from 28.1 to 152.4.
Cumulatively, prices increased 442.3%, which works out to an average of
4.55% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1957 bought what
$0.18 buys in 1995: the 1957 dollar
lost 81.6% of its purchasing power over
these 38 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 1995 at the same ratio, 5.42: $1,000 becomes
$5,423, and $10,000 becomes $54,235.
Amount in 1957
Value in 1995
$1.00
$5.42
$5.00
$27.12
$10.00
$54.23
$20.00
$108
$50.00
$271
$100
$542
$500
$2,712
$1,000
$5,423
$5,000
$27,117
$10,000
$54,235
$100,000
$542,349
$1,000,000
$5,423,488
Inflation by spending category, 1957–1995
Between 1957 and 1995, medical care rose the most, up 1019.3%, while apparel rose the least, up 196.6%, against 442.3% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1957
spending costs in 1995, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1957 →
All items (CPI-U)
4.55%
$542
Medical care
6.56%
$1,119
Core (all items less food & energy)
4.63%
$558
Food
4.40%
$513
Transportation
4.34%
$502
Energy
4.27%
$489
Apparel
2.90%
$297
Not shown because the BLS began these indexes after 1957: housing (1967–), recreation (1993–), education & communication (1993–).
Decade by decade: 1957 to 1995
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 1957–1995 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
1990–1995
3.12%
16.6%
$542
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1957
$100 from 1957 had already become $191 by
1975, on its way to $542 in 1995; 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: 1995
In 1995, prices rose 2.8% and $100 from 1957 had the buying
power of $542; the year's average CPI of 152.4 is the level
behind every 1995 figure on this page.
In 1995, gas averaged $1.15 a gallon, a new home cost roughly $133,900, and the median household
earned about $34,100. Inflation ran at 2.8% for the year, little changed from 1994, as the
Federal Reserve shifted from raising rates to cutting them. Having lifted its policy rate six
times the year before, the Fed judged by July that the economy had cooled enough on its own, and
trimmed rates instead, an outcome economists would later point to as a rare soft landing. The
year opened with a currency crisis: Mexico’s peso lost roughly half its value against the dollar
in a matter of weeks, and the U.S. Treasury and the IMF assembled a $50 billion rescue package,
controversial in Congress, to stabilize it and keep the crisis from spreading to other emerging
markets. Closer to home, a budget standoff between President Clinton and the Republican Congress
shut down federal agencies twice, first for five days in November and then for 21 days spanning
December into January 1996, the longest shutdown up to that point. The Postal Service raised the
cost of a first-class stamp to 32 cents in January. Low, steady inflation was about the only calm
part of 1995’s economic story.
MLA: “Inflation from 1957 to 1995: $100 is worth $542 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1957-to-1995/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1957 to 1995. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1957-to-1995/