$100 in 1957 is worth $655 in 2003,
because prices increased 554.8% over that period, an average of
4.17% a year.
$100 in 1957 has
the same buying power as
$655
in 2003
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
554.8%
Average inflation rate
4.17% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$655
Price difference ($100 base)
$555
CPI in 1957
28.1
CPI in 2003
184
Inflation in 1957
3.31%
Inflation in 2003
2.28%
$100 in 1957 → 2003
$655
$100 in 2003 → 1957
$15.27
What happened to prices between 1957 and 2003
Between 1957 and 2003, the Consumer Price Index went from 28.1 to 184.
Cumulatively, prices increased 554.8%, which works out to an average of
4.17% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1957 bought what
$0.15 buys in 2003: the 1957 dollar
lost 84.7% of its purchasing power over
these 46 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 2003 at the same ratio, 6.55: $1,000 becomes
$6,548, and $10,000 becomes $65,480.
Amount in 1957
Value in 2003
$1.00
$6.55
$5.00
$32.74
$10.00
$65.48
$20.00
$131
$50.00
$327
$100
$655
$500
$3,274
$1,000
$6,548
$5,000
$32,740
$10,000
$65,480
$100,000
$654,804
$1,000,000
$6,548,043
Inflation by spending category, 1957–2003
Between 1957 and 2003, medical care rose the most, up 1408.1%, while apparel rose the least, up 171.7%, against 554.8% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1957
spending costs in 2003, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1957 →
All items (CPI-U)
4.17%
$655
Medical care
6.08%
$1,508
Core (all items less food & energy)
4.22%
$669
Energy
4.10%
$635
Food
4.06%
$623
Transportation
3.85%
$569
Apparel
2.20%
$272
Not shown because the BLS began these indexes after 1957: housing (1967–), recreation (1993–), education & communication (1993–).
Decade by decade: 1957 to 2003
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 1957–2003 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
2000–2003
2.23%
6.9%
$655
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1957
$100 from 1957 had already become $258 by
1979, on its way to $655 in 2003; 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: 2003
In 2003, prices rose 2.3% and $100 from 1957 had the buying
power of $655; the year's average CPI of 184 is the level
behind every 2003 figure on this page.
Inflation was 2.3% in 2003, up from 1.6% in 2002, as gasoline climbed from $1.36 to $1.59 a
gallon around the March invasion of Iraq. Even so, the Federal Reserve spent the year worried
about prices being too low: on June 25 it cut its policy rate to 1.0%, the lowest since 1958,
and said the risk of deflation, though small, deserved a response. The median household earned
about $43,300 and a new home cost roughly $195,000. Congress passed a second round of tax cuts
in May, and the economy grew faster in the second half of the year than at any point since
1999. Hiring lagged the recovery, and unemployment peaked at 6.3% in June. A first-class stamp
stayed at 37 cents and the federal minimum wage at $5.15.
MLA: “Inflation from 1957 to 2003: $100 is worth $655 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1957-to-2003/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1957 to 2003. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1957-to-2003/