$100 in 1957 is worth $894 in 2018,
because prices increased 793.6% over that period, an average of
3.66% a year.
$100 in 1957 has
the same buying power as
$894
in 2018
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
793.6%
Average inflation rate
3.66% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$894
Price difference ($100 base)
$794
CPI in 1957
28.1
CPI in 2018
251.107
Inflation in 1957
3.31%
Inflation in 2018
2.44%
$100 in 1957 → 2018
$894
$100 in 2018 → 1957
$11.19
What happened to prices between 1957 and 2018
Between 1957 and 2018, the Consumer Price Index went from 28.1 to 251.107.
Cumulatively, prices increased 793.6%, which works out to an average of
3.66% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1957 bought what
$0.11 buys in 2018: the 1957 dollar
lost 88.8% of its purchasing power over
these 61 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 2018 at the same ratio, 8.94: $1,000 becomes
$8,936, and $10,000 becomes $89,362.
Amount in 1957
Value in 2018
$1.00
$8.94
$5.00
$44.68
$10.00
$89.36
$20.00
$179
$50.00
$447
$100
$894
$500
$4,468
$1,000
$8,936
$5,000
$44,681
$10,000
$89,362
$100,000
$893,619
$1,000,000
$8,936,192
Inflation by spending category, 1957–2018
Between 1957 and 2018, medical care rose the most, up 2360.4%, while apparel rose the least, up 182.4%, against 793.6% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1957
spending costs in 2018, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1957 →
All items (CPI-U)
3.66%
$894
Medical care
5.39%
$2,460
Energy
3.89%
$1,023
Core (all items less food & energy)
3.65%
$891
Food
3.62%
$877
Transportation
3.38%
$761
Apparel
1.72%
$282
Not shown because the BLS began these indexes after 1957: housing (1967–), recreation (1993–), education & communication (1993–).
Decade by decade: 1957 to 2018
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 1957–2018 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
2010–2018
1.78%
15.2%
$894
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1957
$100 from 1957 had already become $404 by
1987, on its way to $894 in 2018; 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 5 years; the calculator above covers any pair of years.
The destination year: 2018
In 2018, prices rose 2.4% and $100 from 1957 had the buying
power of $894; the year's average CPI of 251.107 is the level
behind every 2018 figure on this page.
2018 was the peak of the late-2010s expansion. Consumer prices rose 2.4%,
the fastest since 2011, with gasoline averaging $2.72 a gallon after a summer
high. Unemployment fell to 3.7% in September, the lowest since 1969, and median
household income reached $63,179. The median new home sold for about $331,800,
and a first-class stamp cost 50 cents. The federal minimum wage was still $7.25.
Trade policy became a price factor for the first time in decades. New tariffs
on steel, aluminum, and a growing list of Chinese goods raised costs for
manufacturers and some consumer products, and retaliation cut into exports of
soybeans and other farm goods.
The Federal Reserve, led from February by Jerome Powell, raised rates four
times to 2.25–2.50%. A stock-market drop of nearly 20% in the fourth quarter
led the Fed to signal a pause in early 2019. Oil fell from over $75 a barrel in
October to below $50 by December, which pulled headline inflation lower going
into the next year.
MLA: “Inflation from 1957 to 2018: $100 is worth $894 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1957-to-2018/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1957 to 2018. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1957-to-2018/