$100 in 1957 is worth $843 in 2015,
because prices increased 743.5% over that period, an average of
3.74% a year.
$100 in 1957 has
the same buying power as
$843
in 2015
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
743.5%
Average inflation rate
3.74% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$843
Price difference ($100 base)
$743
CPI in 1957
28.1
CPI in 2015
237.017
Inflation in 1957
3.31%
Inflation in 2015
0.12%
$100 in 1957 → 2015
$843
$100 in 2015 → 1957
$11.86
What happened to prices between 1957 and 2015
Between 1957 and 2015, the Consumer Price Index went from 28.1 to 237.017.
Cumulatively, prices increased 743.5%, which works out to an average of
3.74% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1957 bought what
$0.12 buys in 2015: the 1957 dollar
lost 88.1% of its purchasing power over
these 58 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 2015 at the same ratio, 8.43: $1,000 becomes
$8,435, and $10,000 becomes $84,348.
Amount in 1957
Value in 2015
$1.00
$8.43
$5.00
$42.17
$10.00
$84.35
$20.00
$169
$50.00
$422
$100
$843
$500
$4,217
$1,000
$8,435
$5,000
$42,174
$10,000
$84,348
$100,000
$843,477
$1,000,000
$8,434,769
Inflation by spending category, 1957–2015
Between 1957 and 2015, medical care rose the most, up 2167.8%, while apparel rose the least, up 182.9%, against 743.5% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1957
spending costs in 2015, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1957 →
All items (CPI-U)
3.74%
$843
Medical care
5.53%
$2,268
Energy
3.95%
$944
Food
3.77%
$855
Core (all items less food & energy)
3.73%
$838
Transportation
3.46%
$719
Apparel
1.81%
$283
Not shown because the BLS began these indexes after 1957: housing (1967–), recreation (1993–), education & communication (1993–).
Decade by decade: 1957 to 2015
Prices climbed fastest in the 1970s, averaging 7.82% a year, and slowest in the 2010s (1.68% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1957–2015 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
2010–2015
1.68%
8.7%
$843
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1957
$100 from 1957 had already become $383 by
1985, on its way to $843 in 2015; 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: 2015
In 2015, prices rose 0.1% and $100 from 1957 had the buying
power of $843; the year's average CPI of 237.017 is the level
behind every 2015 figure on this page.
2015 was almost a year with no inflation at all. Consumer prices rose 0.1%,
the smallest increase since the 2009 decline, because energy prices kept
falling. Gasoline averaged $2.45 a gallon, down from $3.37 in 2014, and a
strong dollar made imported goods cheaper. The picture was different outside
food and energy: core prices rose about 1.8% as rents and medical costs
climbed.
Incomes finally showed real progress. Median household income reached $56,516,
a large jump from $53,657, and the median new home sold for about $296,400. The
federal minimum wage stayed at $7.25, and a first-class stamp stayed at 49
cents.
The Federal Reserve chose December to end its zero-rate policy, raising the
target range to 0.25–0.50% for the first time since 2006. It moved even
though headline inflation was far under 2%, arguing that the drag from
energy was temporary. Earlier, a currency shift in China in August had shaken
global markets and pushed oil below $40 a barrel. Prices in 2015 ended
the year barely above their 2014 level.
MLA: “Inflation from 1957 to 2015: $100 is worth $843 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1957-to-2015/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1957 to 2015. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1957-to-2015/