$100 in 1957 is worth $776 in 2010,
because prices increased 676.0% over that period, an average of
3.94% a year.
$100 in 1957 has
the same buying power as
$776
in 2010
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
676.0%
Average inflation rate
3.94% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$776
Price difference ($100 base)
$676
CPI in 1957
28.1
CPI in 2010
218.056
Inflation in 1957
3.31%
Inflation in 2010
1.64%
$100 in 1957 → 2010
$776
$100 in 2010 → 1957
$12.89
What happened to prices between 1957 and 2010
Between 1957 and 2010, the Consumer Price Index went from 28.1 to 218.056.
Cumulatively, prices increased 676.0%, which works out to an average of
3.94% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1957 bought what
$0.13 buys in 2010: the 1957 dollar
lost 87.1% of its purchasing power over
these 53 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 2010 at the same ratio, 7.76: $1,000 becomes
$7,760, and $10,000 becomes $77,600.
Amount in 1957
Value in 2010
$1.00
$7.76
$5.00
$38.80
$10.00
$77.60
$20.00
$155
$50.00
$388
$100
$776
$500
$3,880
$1,000
$7,760
$5,000
$38,800
$10,000
$77,600
$100,000
$776,000
$1,000,000
$7,760,000
Inflation by spending category, 1957–2010
Between 1957 and 2010, medical care rose the most, up 1871.8%, while apparel rose the least, up 168.5%, against 676.0% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1957
spending costs in 2010, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1957 →
All items (CPI-U)
3.94%
$776
Medical care
5.79%
$1,972
Energy
4.41%
$983
Core (all items less food & energy)
3.92%
$766
Food
3.90%
$760
Transportation
3.73%
$698
Apparel
1.88%
$269
Not shown because the BLS began these indexes after 1957: housing (1967–), recreation (1993–), education & communication (1993–).
Decade by decade: 1957 to 2010
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 1957–2010 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
2000–2010
2.39%
26.6%
$776
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1957
$100 from 1957 had already become $354 by
1983, on its way to $776 in 2010; 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 prices fell 0.4% in 2009, the deepest deflation of the period.
Long periods are sampled every 2 years; the calculator above covers any pair of years.
The destination year: 2010
In 2010, prices rose 1.6% and $100 from 1957 had the buying
power of $776; the year's average CPI of 218.056 is the level
behind every 2010 figure on this page.
2010 was a year of recovery without much price pressure. The CPI rose 1.6%, a
return to growth after 2009’s deflation, with gasoline averaging $2.78 a
gallon as energy prices climbed back from their recession lows. Housing costs
barely moved: millions of foreclosed and vacant homes kept rents soft, and the
median new home sold for about $221,800. The federal minimum wage stayed at
$7.25, the level set in July 2009, and a first-class stamp cost 44 cents.
The Federal Reserve was more worried about too little inflation than too
much. Its policy rate sat at 0–0.25%, and in November it announced a further
$600 billion of Treasury purchases to hold down long-term borrowing costs.
Congress passed the Dodd-Frank Act in July to tighten financial regulation,
while a 110 billion euro rescue of Greece in May showed that the crisis had
moved from American mortgages to European government debt. For anyone
comparing dollars across the decade, 2010 is a useful baseline: prices were
still close to their 2008 levels, and the years ahead brought a slow, steady
climb.
MLA: “Inflation from 1957 to 2010: $100 is worth $776 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1957-to-2010/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1957 to 2010. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1957-to-2010/