$100 in 1957 is worth $640 in 2002,
because prices increased 540.2% over that period, an average of
4.21% a year.
$100 in 1957 has
the same buying power as
$640
in 2002
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
540.2%
Average inflation rate
4.21% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$640
Price difference ($100 base)
$540
CPI in 1957
28.1
CPI in 2002
179.9
Inflation in 1957
3.31%
Inflation in 2002
1.58%
$100 in 1957 → 2002
$640
$100 in 2002 → 1957
$15.62
What happened to prices between 1957 and 2002
Between 1957 and 2002, the Consumer Price Index went from 28.1 to 179.9.
Cumulatively, prices increased 540.2%, which works out to an average of
4.21% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1957 bought what
$0.16 buys in 2002: the 1957 dollar
lost 84.4% of its purchasing power over
these 45 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 2002 at the same ratio, 6.40: $1,000 becomes
$6,402, and $10,000 becomes $64,021.
Amount in 1957
Value in 2002
$1.00
$6.40
$5.00
$32.01
$10.00
$64.02
$20.00
$128
$50.00
$320
$100
$640
$500
$3,201
$1,000
$6,402
$5,000
$32,011
$10,000
$64,021
$100,000
$640,214
$1,000,000
$6,402,135
Inflation by spending category, 1957–2002
Between 1957 and 2002, medical care rose the most, up 1349.7%, while apparel rose the least, up 178.7%, against 540.2% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1957
spending costs in 2002, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1957 →
All items (CPI-U)
4.21%
$640
Medical care
6.12%
$1,450
Core (all items less food & energy)
4.28%
$659
Food
4.10%
$610
Energy
3.93%
$566
Transportation
3.87%
$552
Apparel
2.30%
$279
Not shown because the BLS began these indexes after 1957: housing (1967–), recreation (1993–), education & communication (1993–).
Decade by decade: 1957 to 2002
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 1957–2002 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
1990–2000
2.80%
31.8%
$613
2000–2002
2.21%
4.5%
$640
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1957
$100 from 1957 had already become $258 by
1979, on its way to $640 in 2002; 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: 2002
In 2002, prices rose 1.6% and $100 from 1957 had the buying
power of $640; the year's average CPI of 179.9 is the level
behind every 2002 figure on this page.
The CPI rose 1.6% in 2002, the lowest annual rate of the decade so far, with gasoline down to an
average of $1.36 a gallon and slack in the labor market keeping wage pressure low. The median
household earned about $42,400, and a new home cost roughly $187,600, an increase of about 7%
from the year before as low mortgage rates began to lift housing. The Federal Reserve cut its
policy rate to 1.25% in November. Stocks were moving the other way: after the Enron and WorldCom
scandals, the S&P 500 hit its bear-market low on October 9, about 49% below its March 2000
peak, and Congress passed the Sarbanes-Oxley Act in July to tighten corporate accounting rules.
On January 1, euro banknotes and coins replaced national currencies in 12 European countries. A
first-class stamp rose to 37 cents in June, and the federal minimum wage stayed at $5.15.
MLA: “Inflation from 1957 to 2002: $100 is worth $640 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1957-to-2002/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1957 to 2002. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1957-to-2002/