$100 in 1950 is worth $121 in 1959,
because prices increased 20.7% over that period, an average of
2.12% a year.
$100 in 1950 has
the same buying power as
$121
in 1959
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
20.7%
Average inflation rate
2.12% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$121
Price difference ($100 base)
$20.75
CPI in 1950
24.1
CPI in 1959
29.1
Inflation in 1950
1.26%
Inflation in 1959
0.69%
$100 in 1950 → 1959
$121
$100 in 1959 → 1950
$82.82
What happened to prices between 1950 and 1959
Between 1950 and 1959, the Consumer Price Index went from 24.1 to 29.1.
Cumulatively, prices increased 20.7%, which works out to an average of
2.12% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1950 bought what
$0.83 buys in 1959: the 1950 dollar
lost 17.2% of its purchasing power over
these 9 years.
Consumer prices rose 1.3% in 1950, up from 1949’s 1.2%
decline, a mild gain that hid a sharp turn partway through the year. The
cost of living had been roughly flat through the spring, then jumped after
North Korea invaded South Korea on June 25, setting off a wave of hoarding
and defense buying reminiscent of World War II shortages. The United
States entered the war within days under a United Nations mandate;
American and South Korean forces were pushed back to the Pusan Perimeter
that summer before a landing at Inchon that September reversed the front,
and China’s entry into the war that November turned it into a longer
stalemate. Congress moved to put the economy on a war footing that
September, passing the Defense Production Act, which gave the president
authority to direct industrial output toward the military and, if prices
kept climbing, to impose formal wage and price controls. Domestic policy
also expanded that year: the Social Security Amendments of 1950, signed
August 28, raised benefits across the board and extended coverage to
roughly 10 million more workers, the program’s first major expansion since
it began in 1935. Consumer prices finished 1950 143.4% above their
1913 level, matching 1948’s postwar high
after 1949’s brief decline. First-class postage held at 3 cents, and the
minimum wage stood at 75 cents an hour after January’s increase.
Every 1950 amount converts to 1959 at the same ratio, 1.21: $1,000 becomes
$1,207, and $10,000 becomes $12,075.
Amount in 1950
Value in 1959
$1.00
$1.21
$5.00
$6.04
$10.00
$12.07
$20.00
$24.15
$50.00
$60.37
$100
$121
$500
$604
$1,000
$1,207
$5,000
$6,037
$10,000
$12,075
$100,000
$120,747
$1,000,000
$1,207,469
Inflation by spending category, 1950–1959
Between 1950 and 1959, medical care rose the most, up 42.4%, while apparel rose the least, up 11.7%, against 20.7% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1950
spending costs in 1959, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1950 →
All items (CPI-U)
2.12%
$121
Medical care
4.00%
$142
Transportation
3.07%
$131
Food
1.75%
$117
Apparel
1.23%
$112
Not shown because the BLS began these indexes after 1950: core (all items less food & energy) (1957–), energy (1957–), housing (1967–), recreation (1993–), education & communication (1993–).
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1950
$100 from 1950 had already become $112 by
1954, on its way to $121 in 1959; each row shows the CPI, that
year's inflation rate, and the running value.
Within the span, inflation peaked at 7.9% in 1951, and prices fell 0.4% in 1955, the deepest deflation of the period.
In 1959, prices rose 0.7% and $100 from 1950 had the buying
power of $121; the year's average CPI of 29.1 is the level
behind every 1959 figure on this page.
Consumer prices rose 0.7% in 1959, down sharply from 1958’s
2.8% as the economy recovered briskly from the year before’s recession,
with output and employment both rebounding through the year. The map of
the country changed that year for the first time since 1912: Alaska
joined the union January 3, and Hawaii followed August 21, completing the
50-state United States. Ninety miles from Florida, Cuba changed hands
that January, when Fidel Castro’s guerrilla forces overthrew President
Fulgencio Batista, who fled the country on the 1st; Castro entered Havana
on the 8th, beginning a Communist government that would define Cold War
tensions in the hemisphere for decades. Labor and management fought their
longest battle of the postwar era that summer: the United Steelworkers
walked out July 15 in a dispute over work rules, the longest strike in the
industry’s history, before a federal court granted the Eisenhower
administration a Taft-Hartley back-to-work order that November. Consumer
prices finished the decade 193.9% above their 1913 level,
up 20.7% from where they stood in 1950. First-class
postage held at 4 cents, and the minimum wage stayed at $1.00 an hour.
MLA: “Inflation from 1950 to 1959: $100 is worth $121 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1950-to-1959/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1950 to 1959. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1950-to-1959/