$100 in 1957 is worth $872 in 2017,
because prices increased 772.3% over that period, an average of
3.68% a year.
$100 in 1957 has
the same buying power as
$872
in 2017
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
772.3%
Average inflation rate
3.68% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$872
Price difference ($100 base)
$772
CPI in 1957
28.1
CPI in 2017
245.12
Inflation in 1957
3.31%
Inflation in 2017
2.13%
$100 in 1957 → 2017
$872
$100 in 2017 → 1957
$11.46
What happened to prices between 1957 and 2017
Between 1957 and 2017, the Consumer Price Index went from 28.1 to 245.12.
Cumulatively, prices increased 772.3%, which works out to an average of
3.68% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1957 bought what
$0.11 buys in 2017: the 1957 dollar
lost 88.5% of its purchasing power over
these 60 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 2017 at the same ratio, 8.72: $1,000 becomes
$8,723, and $10,000 becomes $87,231.
Amount in 1957
Value in 2017
$1.00
$8.72
$5.00
$43.62
$10.00
$87.23
$20.00
$174
$50.00
$436
$100
$872
$500
$4,362
$1,000
$8,723
$5,000
$43,616
$10,000
$87,231
$100,000
$872,313
$1,000,000
$8,723,132
Inflation by spending category, 1957–2017
Between 1957 and 2017, medical care rose the most, up 2312.8%, while apparel rose the least, up 182.3%, against 772.3% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1957
spending costs in 2017, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1957 →
All items (CPI-U)
3.68%
$872
Medical care
5.45%
$2,413
Energy
3.83%
$951
Core (all items less food & energy)
3.68%
$873
Food
3.66%
$865
Transportation
3.36%
$728
Apparel
1.74%
$282
Not shown because the BLS began these indexes after 1957: housing (1967–), recreation (1993–), education & communication (1993–).
Decade by decade: 1957 to 2017
Prices climbed fastest in the 1970s, averaging 7.82% a year, and slowest in the 2010s (1.69% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1957–2017 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
2010–2017
1.69%
12.4%
$872
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1957
$100 from 1957 had already become $404 by
1987, on its way to $872 in 2017; 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: 2017
In 2017, prices rose 2.1% and $100 from 1957 had the buying
power of $872; the year's average CPI of 245.12 is the level
behind every 2017 figure on this page.
2017 pushed consumer prices back above the Federal Reserve’s 2% target. The
CPI rose 2.1%, the first reading over 2% in five years, helped by a rebound
in energy after OPEC’s output cuts and by a storm-related spike at the pump:
Hurricane Harvey shut a large part of Gulf Coast refining in late August.
Gasoline averaged $2.42 a gallon, up from $2.14 in 2016.
Household incomes kept rising. The median household income reached $61,372,
and the median new home sold for about $322,100. The federal minimum wage
stayed at $7.25, its eighth year at that level, and a first-class stamp rose
to 49 cents.
The Fed raised rates three times, to 1.25–1.50%, and in October began
letting its bond holdings shrink. Congress passed the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act
in December, lowering the corporate rate to 21%. Even with unemployment near
4%, core inflation stayed under 2%, a puzzle that shaped Fed debates for the
next two years.
MLA: “Inflation from 1957 to 2017: $100 is worth $872 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1957-to-2017/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1957 to 2017. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1957-to-2017/