$100 in 1957 is worth $717 in 2006,
because prices increased 617.4% over that period, an average of
4.10% a year.
$100 in 1957 has
the same buying power as
$717
in 2006
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
617.4%
Average inflation rate
4.10% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$717
Price difference ($100 base)
$617
CPI in 1957
28.1
CPI in 2006
201.6
Inflation in 1957
3.31%
Inflation in 2006
3.23%
$100 in 1957 → 2006
$717
$100 in 2006 → 1957
$13.94
What happened to prices between 1957 and 2006
Between 1957 and 2006, the Consumer Price Index went from 28.1 to 201.6.
Cumulatively, prices increased 617.4%, which works out to an average of
4.10% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1957 bought what
$0.14 buys in 2006: the 1957 dollar
lost 86.1% of its purchasing power over
these 49 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 2006 at the same ratio, 7.17: $1,000 becomes
$7,174, and $10,000 becomes $71,744.
Amount in 1957
Value in 2006
$1.00
$7.17
$5.00
$35.87
$10.00
$71.74
$20.00
$143
$50.00
$359
$100
$717
$500
$3,587
$1,000
$7,174
$5,000
$35,872
$10,000
$71,744
$100,000
$717,438
$1,000,000
$7,174,377
Inflation by spending category, 1957–2006
Between 1957 and 2006, medical care rose the most, up 1606.6%, while apparel rose the least, up 168.5%, against 617.4% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1957
spending costs in 2006, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1957 →
All items (CPI-U)
4.10%
$717
Medical care
5.96%
$1,707
Energy
4.62%
$916
Core (all items less food & energy)
4.09%
$712
Food
3.98%
$675
Transportation
3.90%
$653
Apparel
2.04%
$269
Not shown because the BLS began these indexes after 1957: housing (1967–), recreation (1993–), education & communication (1993–).
Decade by decade: 1957 to 2006
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 1957–2006 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
2000–2006
2.66%
17.1%
$717
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1957
$100 from 1957 had already become $323 by
1981, on its way to $717 in 2006; 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: 2006
In 2006, prices rose 3.2% and $100 from 1957 had the buying
power of $717; the year's average CPI of 201.6 is the level
behind every 2006 figure on this page.
Inflation was 3.2% in 2006 and gasoline averaged $2.59 a gallon, up 29 cents from 2005. The
median household earned about $48,200 and the median new home cost $246,500, a gain of about
2% after a 13% jump in 2004 and 9% in 2005. National home prices, by the S&P/Case-Shiller
index, peaked in mid-2006. Ben Bernanke replaced Alan Greenspan as Federal Reserve chair on
February 1, and on June 29 the Fed raised its policy rate to 5.25%, the last of 17 straight
quarter-point increases. It held there for over a year. A first-class stamp rose to 39 cents in
January, and the federal minimum wage was $5.15 for the ninth full year in a row.
MLA: “Inflation from 1957 to 2006: $100 is worth $717 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1957-to-2006/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1957 to 2006. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1957-to-2006/