$100 in 1957 is worth $817 in 2012,
because prices increased 717.1% over that period, an average of
3.89% a year.
$100 in 1957 has
the same buying power as
$817
in 2012
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
717.1%
Average inflation rate
3.89% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$817
Price difference ($100 base)
$717
CPI in 1957
28.1
CPI in 2012
229.594
Inflation in 1957
3.31%
Inflation in 2012
2.07%
$100 in 1957 → 2012
$817
$100 in 2012 → 1957
$12.24
What happened to prices between 1957 and 2012
Between 1957 and 2012, the Consumer Price Index went from 28.1 to 229.594.
Cumulatively, prices increased 717.1%, which works out to an average of
3.89% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1957 bought what
$0.12 buys in 2012: the 1957 dollar
lost 87.8% of its purchasing power over
these 55 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 2012 at the same ratio, 8.17: $1,000 becomes
$8,171, and $10,000 becomes $81,706.
Amount in 1957
Value in 2012
$1.00
$8.17
$5.00
$40.85
$10.00
$81.71
$20.00
$163
$50.00
$409
$100
$817
$500
$4,085
$1,000
$8,171
$5,000
$40,853
$10,000
$81,706
$100,000
$817,060
$1,000,000
$8,170,605
Inflation by spending category, 1957–2012
Between 1957 and 2012, medical care rose the most, up 2006.2%, while apparel rose the least, up 183.7%, against 717.1% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1957
spending costs in 2012, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1957 →
All items (CPI-U)
3.89%
$817
Medical care
5.70%
$2,106
Energy
4.53%
$1,145
Food
3.87%
$809
Core (all items less food & energy)
3.84%
$795
Transportation
3.82%
$785
Apparel
1.91%
$284
Not shown because the BLS began these indexes after 1957: housing (1967–), recreation (1993–), education & communication (1993–).
Decade by decade: 1957 to 2012
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 1957–2012 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
2010–2012
2.61%
5.3%
$817
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1957
$100 from 1957 had already become $383 by
1985, on its way to $817 in 2012; 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: 2012
In 2012, prices rose 2.1% and $100 from 1957 had the buying
power of $817; the year's average CPI of 229.594 is the level
behind every 2012 figure on this page.
2012 put a number on what the Federal Reserve was aiming for. In January the
Fed announced a 2% inflation target, and consumer prices rose 2.1% for the
year, almost exactly on it. Gasoline averaged $3.62 a gallon, another annual
high, but the pace of increase cooled from 2011’s 3.2% as food and core prices
grew more slowly.
The bigger story was housing and jobs. Home prices began to recover, and the
median new home sold for about $245,200, up from $227,200 the year before.
Median household income was $51,017. The federal minimum wage held at $7.25,
and a first-class stamp rose to 45 cents.
In September the Fed started a third round of asset purchases, this one with
no fixed end date, aimed at lowering unemployment. Overseas, the European
Central Bank’s July pledge to do “whatever it takes” to save the euro calmed
bond markets. A summer drought across the Midwest drove corn and soybean
prices to records, a shock that reached grocery shelves only partly, because
most of what shoppers pay for food covers processing and transport rather than
raw crops.
MLA: “Inflation from 1957 to 2012: $100 is worth $817 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1957-to-2012/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1957 to 2012. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1957-to-2012/