$100 in 1957 is worth $910 in 2019,
because prices increased 809.8% over that period, an average of
3.63% a year.
$100 in 1957 has
the same buying power as
$910
in 2019
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
809.8%
Average inflation rate
3.63% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$910
Price difference ($100 base)
$810
CPI in 1957
28.1
CPI in 2019
255.657
Inflation in 1957
3.31%
Inflation in 2019
1.81%
$100 in 1957 → 2019
$910
$100 in 2019 → 1957
$10.99
What happened to prices between 1957 and 2019
Between 1957 and 2019, the Consumer Price Index went from 28.1 to 255.657.
Cumulatively, prices increased 809.8%, which works out to an average of
3.63% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1957 bought what
$0.11 buys in 2019: the 1957 dollar
lost 89.0% of its purchasing power over
these 62 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 2019 at the same ratio, 9.10: $1,000 becomes
$9,098, and $10,000 becomes $90,981.
Amount in 1957
Value in 2019
$1.00
$9.10
$5.00
$45.49
$10.00
$90.98
$20.00
$182
$50.00
$455
$100
$910
$500
$4,549
$1,000
$9,098
$5,000
$45,491
$10,000
$90,981
$100,000
$909,811
$1,000,000
$9,098,114
Inflation by spending category, 1957–2019
Between 1957 and 2019, medical care rose the most, up 2430.0%, while apparel rose the least, up 178.8%, against 809.8% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1957
spending costs in 2019, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1957 →
All items (CPI-U)
3.63%
$910
Medical care
5.35%
$2,530
Energy
3.79%
$1,001
Core (all items less food & energy)
3.63%
$911
Food
3.60%
$894
Transportation
3.32%
$758
Apparel
1.67%
$279
Not shown because the BLS began these indexes after 1957: housing (1967–), recreation (1993–), education & communication (1993–).
Decade by decade: 1957 to 2019
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 1957–2019 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
2010–2019
1.78%
17.2%
$910
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1957
$100 from 1957 had already become $404 by
1987, on its way to $910 in 2019; 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: 2019
In 2019, prices rose 1.8% and $100 from 1957 had the buying
power of $910; the year's average CPI of 255.657 is the level
behind every 2019 figure on this page.
2019 was the last ordinary year before COVID-19. Consumer prices rose 1.8%,
slightly under the Federal Reserve’s 2% target, with gasoline averaging
$2.60 a gallon. Median household income jumped to $68,703, the highest on
record up to that point, and the median new home sold for about $328,000. A
first-class stamp rose to 55 cents.
The Fed reversed course. After four increases in 2018, it cut rates three
times, to 1.50–1.75%, citing slower global growth, trade tensions, and low
inflation. In July the expansion that began in June 2009 became the longest in
U.S. records, and in August the yield curve briefly inverted, a signal
investors read as a recession warning.
For workers at the bottom of the pay scale, 2019 marked a milestone of a
different kind. The federal minimum wage stayed at $7.25 and reached its tenth
year without an increase, the longest gap since the wage was first set. Because
prices had climbed about 19% since it was last raised in 2009, its buying power
was lower than at any point in that span.
MLA: “Inflation from 1957 to 2019: $100 is worth $910 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1957-to-2019/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1957 to 2019. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1957-to-2019/