$100 in 1956 is worth $613 in 1999,
because prices increased 512.5% over that period, an average of
4.30% a year.
$100 in 1956 has
the same buying power as
$613
in 1999
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
512.5%
Average inflation rate
4.30% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$613
Price difference ($100 base)
$513
CPI in 1956
27.2
CPI in 1999
166.6
Inflation in 1956
1.49%
Inflation in 1999
2.21%
$100 in 1956 → 1999
$613
$100 in 1999 → 1956
$16.33
What happened to prices between 1956 and 1999
Between 1956 and 1999, the Consumer Price Index went from 27.2 to 166.6.
Cumulatively, prices increased 512.5%, which works out to an average of
4.30% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1956 bought what
$0.16 buys in 1999: the 1956 dollar
lost 83.7% of its purchasing power over
these 43 years.
Consumer prices rose 1.5% in 1956, a return to mild inflation after they had
fallen 0.4% in 1955, the only annual decline of the decade. The two years sat
in the calmest stretch of the postwar index, a lull between the Korean War
price surge earlier in the 1950s and the acceleration that would return in
the 1970s. Congress had already raised the wage floor into that calm: the
Fair Labor Standards Amendments of 1955, signed the previous August, took
effect March 1 and lifted the federal minimum wage from 75 cents to $1 an
hour, the first increase since 1950. Eisenhower signed a longer-lasting
commitment on June 29, the Federal-Aid Highway Act, funding 41,000 miles of
controlled-access highway at 90% federal cost to build the Interstate
System, the largest public-works program the country had undertaken. He won
a second term that November, carrying 41 states and about 57% of the
popular vote in a rematch against Adlai Stevenson. Abroad, the Suez Crisis
broke the calm on the supply side: Egypt nationalized the canal on July 26,
and after Israel invaded the Sinai on October 29 with British and French
forces following, the canal’s closure and damaged pipelines squeezed oil
shipments to Western Europe for months. Consumer prices stood 174.7% above
their 1913 level by 1956, up 94% since 1940
alone, even after a decade that had barely moved the index. First-class
postage held at 3 cents, unchanged since 1932.
Every 1956 amount converts to 1999 at the same ratio, 6.13: $1,000 becomes
$6,125, and $10,000 becomes $61,250.
Amount in 1956
Value in 1999
$1.00
$6.13
$5.00
$30.63
$10.00
$61.25
$20.00
$123
$50.00
$306
$100
$613
$500
$3,063
$1,000
$6,125
$5,000
$30,625
$10,000
$61,250
$100,000
$612,500
$1,000,000
$6,125,000
Inflation by spending category, 1956–1999
Between 1956 and 1999, medical care rose the most, up 1225.9%, while apparel rose the least, up 200.5%, against 512.5% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1956
spending costs in 1999, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1956 →
All items (CPI-U)
4.30%
$613
Medical care
6.20%
$1,326
Food
4.20%
$586
Transportation
4.05%
$551
Apparel
2.59%
$300
Not shown because the BLS began these indexes after 1956: core (all items less food & energy) (1957–), energy (1957–), housing (1967–), recreation (1993–), education & communication (1993–).
Decade by decade: 1956 to 1999
Prices climbed fastest in the 1970s, averaging 7.82% a year, and slowest in the 1950s (2.14% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1956–1999 change:
Years
Avg. yearly inflation
Price change
$100 from 1956, at end
1956–1960
2.14%
8.8%
$109
1960–1970
2.74%
31.1%
$143
1970–1980
7.82%
112.4%
$303
1980–1990
4.72%
58.6%
$481
1990–1999
2.73%
27.5%
$613
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1956
$100 from 1956 had already become $240 by
1978, on its way to $613 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 1956 had the buying
power of $613; 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 1956 to 1999: $100 is worth $613 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1956-to-1999/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1956 to 1999. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1956-to-1999/