$100 in 1957 is worth $593 in 1999,
because prices increased 492.9% over that period, an average of
4.33% a year.
$100 in 1957 has
the same buying power as
$593
in 1999
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
492.9%
Average inflation rate
4.33% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$593
Price difference ($100 base)
$493
CPI in 1957
28.1
CPI in 1999
166.6
Inflation in 1957
3.31%
Inflation in 1999
2.21%
$100 in 1957 → 1999
$593
$100 in 1999 → 1957
$16.87
What happened to prices between 1957 and 1999
Between 1957 and 1999, the Consumer Price Index went from 28.1 to 166.6.
Cumulatively, prices increased 492.9%, which works out to an average of
4.33% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1957 bought what
$0.17 buys in 1999: the 1957 dollar
lost 83.1% of its purchasing power over
these 42 years.
Consumer prices rose 3.3% in 1957, up from 1956’s 1.5% and
the sharpest increase since the Korean War price surge of 1951. The jump
fed a growing debate among economists over “cost-push” inflation, prices
climbing from rising wages and material costs rather than excess demand,
a debate that would recur for the next quarter century. The Federal
Reserve tightened policy to fight it, and by August the tighter money
combined with falling business investment to tip the economy into a
recession, according to the National Bureau of Economic Research’s
dating. The Cold War took a technological turn that October, when the
Soviet Union launched Sputnik, the first artificial satellite, on the
4th, stunning the American public and setting off both the Space Race and
a surge in federal science and defense spending the following year. Civil
rights reached a crisis that September in Little Rock, Arkansas: after
Governor Orval Faubus used the National Guard to block nine Black
students from Central High School, Eisenhower federalized the Guard and
sent the 101st Airborne Division to enforce the Supreme Court’s
desegregation order. Consumer prices finished 1957 183.8% above their
1913 level. First-class postage held at 3 cents, and the
minimum wage stood at $1.00 an hour.
Every 1957 amount converts to 1999 at the same ratio, 5.93: $1,000 becomes
$5,929, and $10,000 becomes $59,288.
Amount in 1957
Value in 1999
$1.00
$5.93
$5.00
$29.64
$10.00
$59.29
$20.00
$119
$50.00
$296
$100
$593
$500
$2,964
$1,000
$5,929
$5,000
$29,644
$10,000
$59,288
$100,000
$592,883
$1,000,000
$5,928,826
Inflation by spending category, 1957–1999
Between 1957 and 1999, medical care rose the most, up 1172.1%, while apparel rose the least, up 195.1%, against 492.9% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1957
spending costs in 1999, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1957 →
All items (CPI-U)
4.33%
$593
Medical care
6.24%
$1,272
Core (all items less food & energy)
4.41%
$612
Food
4.22%
$568
Transportation
4.01%
$521
Energy
3.89%
$496
Apparel
2.61%
$295
Not shown because the BLS began these indexes after 1957: housing (1967–), recreation (1993–), education & communication (1993–).
Decade by decade: 1957 to 1999
Prices climbed fastest in the 1970s, averaging 7.82% a year, and slowest in the 1950s (1.75% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1957–1999 change:
Years
Avg. yearly inflation
Price change
$100 from 1957, at end
1957–1960
1.75%
5.3%
$105
1960–1970
2.74%
31.1%
$138
1970–1980
7.82%
112.4%
$293
1980–1990
4.72%
58.6%
$465
1990–1999
2.73%
27.5%
$593
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1957
$100 from 1957 had already become $216 by
1977, on its way to $593 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 1957 had the buying
power of $593; 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 1957 to 1999: $100 is worth $593 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1957-to-1999/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1957 to 1999. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1957-to-1999/