$100 in 1957 is worth $580 in 1998,
because prices increased 480.1% over that period, an average of
4.38% a year.
$100 in 1957 has
the same buying power as
$580
in 1998
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
480.1%
Average inflation rate
4.38% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$580
Price difference ($100 base)
$480
CPI in 1957
28.1
CPI in 1998
163
Inflation in 1957
3.31%
Inflation in 1998
1.56%
$100 in 1957 → 1998
$580
$100 in 1998 → 1957
$17.24
What happened to prices between 1957 and 1998
Between 1957 and 1998, the Consumer Price Index went from 28.1 to 163.
Cumulatively, prices increased 480.1%, which works out to an average of
4.38% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1957 bought what
$0.17 buys in 1998: the 1957 dollar
lost 82.8% of its purchasing power over
these 41 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 1998 at the same ratio, 5.80: $1,000 becomes
$5,801, and $10,000 becomes $58,007.
Amount in 1957
Value in 1998
$1.00
$5.80
$5.00
$29.00
$10.00
$58.01
$20.00
$116
$50.00
$290
$100
$580
$500
$2,900
$1,000
$5,801
$5,000
$29,004
$10,000
$58,007
$100,000
$580,071
$1,000,000
$5,800,712
Inflation by spending category, 1957–1998
Between 1957 and 1998, medical care rose the most, up 1128.9%, while apparel rose the least, up 198.9%, against 480.1% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1957
spending costs in 1998, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1957 →
All items (CPI-U)
4.38%
$580
Medical care
6.31%
$1,229
Core (all items less food & energy)
4.47%
$600
Food
4.27%
$556
Transportation
4.06%
$511
Energy
3.89%
$479
Apparel
2.71%
$299
Not shown because the BLS began these indexes after 1957: housing (1967–), recreation (1993–), education & communication (1993–).
Decade by decade: 1957 to 1998
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 1957–1998 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
1990–1998
2.80%
24.7%
$580
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1957
$100 from 1957 had already become $216 by
1977, on its way to $580 in 1998; 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: 1998
In 1998, prices rose 1.6% and $100 from 1957 had the buying
power of $580; the year's average CPI of 163 is the level
behind every 1998 figure on this page.
The median household earned about $38,900 in 1998, gas averaged just $1.06 a gallon, its
cheapest of the decade, and a new home cost roughly $152,500. Inflation ran at 1.6% for the
year, the lowest of the 1990s, as a glut of crude oil, worsened by weak demand from Asia’s
slowdown, pushed prices below $11 a barrel by December and pulled pump prices down with them.
The calm at home came alongside real turmoil abroad: in August, Russia devalued the ruble and
defaulted on its domestic debt, rattling markets already unsettled by the Asian financial
crisis, and in September the hedge fund Long-Term Capital Management collapsed after its highly
leveraged bets went bad, prompting the Federal Reserve to organize a private-sector bailout by
more than a dozen banks to prevent a disorderly unwinding of its roughly $100 billion in
positions. The Fed also cut interest rates three times that fall, in September, October, and
November, an insurance policy against the global financial turmoil spreading to the U.S.
economy. Cheap oil and a well-timed set of rate cuts left 1998 as a year the U.S. economy
absorbed two foreign financial crises without much of a dent at home.
MLA: “Inflation from 1957 to 1998: $100 is worth $580 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1957-to-1998/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1957 to 1998. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1957-to-1998/