What Prices Were Like in the 50's

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People were moving to the suburbs and Elvis was on The Ed Sullivan Show. America was a youthful nation with 31% of its 151 million under the age of 18 and it was alive with change. It was the age of the "baby boomers" and the "nuclear family" with 68% of men and women being married. About 4.4 million homes had television sets by 1950. That was about 9% of households. By the end of the decade, that figure had risen to 90%. The price of a dozen eggs was 60 cents and it cost about 83 cents for a family of four to go to the movies. That was about the price of two gallons of milk. On February 15, 1950, Disney's "Cinderella" came to theaters. The film grossed $52 million that year and sold nearly 99 million tickets. In 1950 52% of all households had children under 18 at home (in 2019 that number was 41%). Family size in 58% of homes was 3 to 5 members, 21% had 6 members, 18% had two members, and only 3% had one member. In 2022 the average size of a family was 3.13 people. Most U.S. households(64%) owned one car in 1954. By 1960 that number rose to 32.4 million and 8% of households owned two cars. The more popular models such as the Cadillac DeVille and the Oldsmobile 88 Fiesta cost around $3,523 and $3,541 respectively. That is about $37,000 in today's dollars. The picture is from wallpaperaccess.com