$100 in 1957 is worth $672 in 2004,
because prices increased 572.2% over that period, an average of
4.14% a year.
$100 in 1957 has
the same buying power as
$672
in 2004
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
572.2%
Average inflation rate
4.14% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$672
Price difference ($100 base)
$572
CPI in 1957
28.1
CPI in 2004
188.9
Inflation in 1957
3.31%
Inflation in 2004
2.66%
$100 in 1957 → 2004
$672
$100 in 2004 → 1957
$14.88
What happened to prices between 1957 and 2004
Between 1957 and 2004, the Consumer Price Index went from 28.1 to 188.9.
Cumulatively, prices increased 572.2%, which works out to an average of
4.14% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1957 bought what
$0.15 buys in 2004: the 1957 dollar
lost 85.1% of its purchasing power over
these 47 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 2004 at the same ratio, 6.72: $1,000 becomes
$6,722, and $10,000 becomes $67,224.
Amount in 1957
Value in 2004
$1.00
$6.72
$5.00
$33.61
$10.00
$67.22
$20.00
$134
$50.00
$336
$100
$672
$500
$3,361
$1,000
$6,722
$5,000
$33,612
$10,000
$67,224
$100,000
$672,242
$1,000,000
$6,722,420
Inflation by spending category, 1957–2004
Between 1957 and 2004, medical care rose the most, up 1474.1%, while apparel rose the least, up 170.6%, against 572.2% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1957
spending costs in 2004, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1957 →
All items (CPI-U)
4.14%
$672
Medical care
6.04%
$1,574
Energy
4.24%
$704
Core (all items less food & energy)
4.16%
$680
Food
4.04%
$644
Transportation
3.84%
$589
Apparel
2.14%
$271
Not shown because the BLS began these indexes after 1957: housing (1967–), recreation (1993–), education & communication (1993–).
Decade by decade: 1957 to 2004
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 1957–2004 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
2000–2004
2.34%
9.7%
$672
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1957
$100 from 1957 had already become $323 by
1981, on its way to $672 in 2004; 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: 2004
In 2004, prices rose 2.7% and $100 from 1957 had the buying
power of $672; the year's average CPI of 188.9 is the level
behind every 2004 figure on this page.
Consumer prices rose 2.7% in 2004, with a 29-cent jump in the price of gasoline, to $1.88 a
gallon, doing much of the work. Crude oil passed $50 a barrel in October on rising demand
from China and India. The Federal Reserve raised rates for the first time in four years on
June 30, to 1.25%, and it kept going: 17 consecutive quarter-point increases took the rate to
5.25% by June 2006. Housing was already running ahead of incomes. The median household earned
about $44,300, up 2.3% from 2003, while the median new home sold for $221,000, up about 13%. A
first-class stamp stayed at 37 cents and the federal minimum wage at $5.15, unchanged since
1997.
MLA: “Inflation from 1957 to 2004: $100 is worth $672 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1957-to-2004/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1957 to 2004. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1957-to-2004/