What a dollar buys over time
The buying power of a single dollar from a year you pick, traced through to today on the Consumer Price Index.
Hover any point to read that month. The line begins at one dollar in 1950 and shows what it buys in the years after.
How it is figured. Each point is one 1950 dollar divided by how far consumer prices have risen since, using the Consumer Price Index for all urban consumers (CPI-U). The line holds buying power in constant 1950 terms, not the prices of the day. It takes about $14.21 today to match what a dollar bought in 1950.
Source: BLS Consumer Price Index (CPI-U, all items), via FRED · CPIAUCSL ·
Jan 1950 to May 2026 · latest-revised
Reading it. This chart is about prices, and prices alone. A dollar buying less over time says nothing about whether pay kept up with it. To put wages against prices, see the real wage chart.
About the bands. Shaded spans are NBER-dated US recessions, drawn as factual overlays. They mark when the economy contracted, not why. Lining an event or policy up with a move on this chart is not evidence that it caused the move.