$100 in 1957 is worth $1,084 in 2023,
because prices increased 984.3% over that period, an average of
3.68% a year.
$100 in 1957 has
the same buying power as
$1,084
in 2023
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
984.3%
Average inflation rate
3.68% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$1,084
Price difference ($100 base)
$984
CPI in 1957
28.1
CPI in 2023
304.702
Inflation in 1957
3.31%
Inflation in 2023
4.12%
$100 in 1957 → 2023
$1,084
$100 in 2023 → 1957
$9.22
What happened to prices between 1957 and 2023
Between 1957 and 2023, the Consumer Price Index went from 28.1 to 304.702.
Cumulatively, prices increased 984.3%, which works out to an average of
3.68% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1957 bought what
$0.09 buys in 2023: the 1957 dollar
lost 90.8% of its purchasing power over
these 66 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 2023 at the same ratio, 10.84: $1,000 becomes
$10,843, and $10,000 becomes $108,435.
Amount in 1957
Value in 2023
$1.00
$10.84
$5.00
$54.22
$10.00
$108
$20.00
$217
$50.00
$542
$100
$1,084
$500
$5,422
$1,000
$10,843
$5,000
$54,217
$10,000
$108,435
$100,000
$1,084,349
$1,000,000
$10,843,488
Inflation by spending category, 1957–2023
Between 1957 and 2023, medical care rose the most, up 2687.2%, while apparel rose the least, up 193.4%, against 984.3% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1957
spending costs in 2023, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1957 →
All items (CPI-U)
3.68%
$1,084
Medical care
5.17%
$2,787
Energy
3.98%
$1,318
Food
3.72%
$1,118
Core (all items less food & energy)
3.65%
$1,067
Transportation
3.49%
$964
Apparel
1.64%
$293
Not shown because the BLS began these indexes after 1957: housing (1967–), recreation (1993–), education & communication (1993–).
Decade by decade: 1957 to 2023
Prices climbed fastest in the 1970s, averaging 7.82% a year, and slowest in the 2010s (1.73% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1957–2023 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
2010–2020
1.73%
18.7%
$921
2020–2023
5.59%
17.7%
$1,084
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1957
$100 from 1957 had already become $499 by
1992, on its way to $1,084 in 2023; 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: 2023
In 2023, prices rose 4.1% and $100 from 1957 had the buying
power of $1,084; the year's average CPI of 304.702 is the level
behind every 2023 figure on this page.
2023 was the year inflation came down without a recession. Consumer prices
rose 4.1% on average, roughly half of 2022’s 8.0%, and the December-to-December
rate fell to 3.4%. Gasoline averaged $3.52 a gallon, well below the 2022
average, and supply-chain pressure on goods eased. Shelter, restaurant meals,
and other services stayed expensive, so the CPI kept rising at a rate well
above the pre-pandemic pace.
The Federal Reserve completed its rate-hiking campaign in July, taking the
policy rate to 5.25–5.50%, the highest level in 22 years. The effects showed
up in banking: Silicon Valley Bank failed in March after rate increases eroded
the value of its bond portfolio, the second-largest bank failure in U.S.
history at the time. Despite that, unemployment stayed under 4% all year.
Median household income was $80,610 according to the Census Bureau. The
federal minimum wage stayed at $7.25, and a first-class stamp rose to 66 cents
in July.
MLA: “Inflation from 1957 to 2023: $100 is worth $1,084 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1957-to-2023/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1957 to 2023. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1957-to-2023/