$100 in 1955 is worth $622 in 1999,
because prices increased 521.6% over that period, an average of
4.24% a year.
$100 in 1955 has
the same buying power as
$622
in 1999
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
521.6%
Average inflation rate
4.24% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$622
Price difference ($100 base)
$522
CPI in 1955
26.8
CPI in 1999
166.6
Inflation in 1955
-0.37%
Inflation in 1999
2.21%
$100 in 1955 → 1999
$622
$100 in 1999 → 1955
$16.09
What happened to prices between 1955 and 1999
Between 1955 and 1999, the Consumer Price Index went from 26.8 to 166.6.
Cumulatively, prices increased 521.6%, which works out to an average of
4.24% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1955 bought what
$0.16 buys in 1999: the 1955 dollar
lost 83.9% of its purchasing power over
these 44 years.
Consumer prices fell 0.4% in 1955, the first annual decline since 1949,
as a strong rebound from the 1953-54 recession delivered growth without
much price pressure; automakers and appliance makers competed hard on
price for a booming consumer market. Organized labor consolidated that
December, when the American Federation of Labor and the Congress of
Industrial Organizations merged on the 5th under President George Meany,
uniting roughly 15 million workers in the AFL-CIO after two decades as
rival federations. That same day, a different kind of organizing began in
Montgomery, Alabama: four days after Rosa Parks was arrested for refusing
to give up her bus seat to a white passenger, the city’s Black community
began a boycott of its buses that would last more than a year and help
launch the civil rights movement’s mass phase. Markets got a scare that
September: news of Eisenhower’s heart attack on the 24th sent the Dow
Jones Industrial Average to its steepest one-day drop since the 1929
crash when trading resumed that Monday, before stocks recovered as the
president’s health improved. Consumer prices finished 1955 170.7% above
their 1913 level, essentially unchanged from where they
stood a year earlier. First-class postage held at 3 cents, and the
minimum wage stayed at 75 cents an hour.
Every 1955 amount converts to 1999 at the same ratio, 6.22: $1,000 becomes
$6,216, and $10,000 becomes $62,164.
Amount in 1955
Value in 1999
$1.00
$6.22
$5.00
$31.08
$10.00
$62.16
$20.00
$124
$50.00
$311
$100
$622
$500
$3,108
$1,000
$6,216
$5,000
$31,082
$10,000
$62,164
$100,000
$621,642
$1,000,000
$6,216,418
Inflation by spending category, 1955–1999
Between 1955 and 1999, medical care rose the most, up 1276.9%, while apparel rose the least, up 206.1%, against 521.6% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1955
spending costs in 1999, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1955 →
All items (CPI-U)
4.24%
$622
Medical care
6.14%
$1,377
Food
4.12%
$590
Transportation
3.99%
$560
Apparel
2.57%
$306
Not shown because the BLS began these indexes after 1955: core (all items less food & energy) (1957–), energy (1957–), housing (1967–), recreation (1993–), education & communication (1993–).
Decade by decade: 1955 to 1999
Prices climbed fastest in the 1970s, averaging 7.82% a year, and slowest in the 1950s (2.01% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1955–1999 change:
Years
Avg. yearly inflation
Price change
$100 from 1955, at end
1955–1960
2.01%
10.4%
$110
1960–1970
2.74%
31.1%
$145
1970–1980
7.82%
112.4%
$307
1980–1990
4.72%
58.6%
$488
1990–1999
2.73%
27.5%
$622
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1955
$100 from 1955 had already become $226 by
1977, on its way to $622 in 1999; 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 the smallest rise was 0.7% in 1959.
Long periods are sampled every 2 years; the calculator above covers any pair of years.
The destination year: 1999
In 1999, prices rose 2.2% and $100 from 1955 had the buying
power of $622; the year's average CPI of 166.6 is the level
behind every 1999 figure on this page.
The median household earned about $40,700 in 1999, gas averaged $1.17 a gallon, and a new home
cost roughly $161,000. Inflation ran at 2.2% for the year, ticking back up from 1998’s decade low
as oil prices recovered from their collapse. The decade closed with two changes to the financial
system that would shape the one after it: on January 1, the euro launched as an accounting
currency across 11 European countries, trading alongside national currencies like the French
franc and German mark ahead of physical cash in 2002, and in November, Congress passed the
Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act, tearing down the Depression-era wall between commercial banks, investment
banks, and insurers. Stock markets, meanwhile, were absorbed in a boom of their own: the Nasdaq
surged through the year on soaring internet-stock valuations, and the Federal Reserve raised
interest rates three times in the second half of 1999 partly to cool the exuberance, even as it
pumped extra liquidity into the banking system to guard against any disruption from the Y2K
rollover. A first-class stamp cost 33 cents. Inflation had spent the decade falling from 1990’s
5.4% peak to averages closer to 2-3%, and 1999 closed it out almost exactly where the 1990s as a
whole had settled.
MLA: “Inflation from 1955 to 1999: $100 is worth $622 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1955-to-1999/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1955 to 1999. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1955-to-1999/