$100 in 1958 is worth $101 in 1959,
because prices increased 0.7% over that period, an average of
0.69% a year.
$100 in 1958 has
the same buying power as
$101
in 1959
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
0.7%
Average inflation rate
0.69% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$101
Price difference ($100 base)
$0.69
CPI in 1958
28.9
CPI in 1959
29.1
Inflation in 1958
2.85%
Inflation in 1959
0.69%
$100 in 1958 → 1959
$101
$100 in 1959 → 1958
$99.31
What happened to prices between 1958 and 1959
Between 1958 and 1959, the Consumer Price Index went from 28.9 to 29.1.
Cumulatively, prices increased 0.7%, which works out to an average of
0.69% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1958 bought what
$0.99 buys in 1959: the 1958 dollar
lost 0.7% of its purchasing power over
these 1 years.
Consumer prices rose 2.8% in 1958, down only slightly from
1957’s 3.3% even as the country sank into the sharpest
postwar recession to that point, an early sign that inflation and a
shrinking economy could coexist rather than trade off against each other.
The National Bureau of Economic Research dates the downturn’s trough to
that April, with unemployment peaking near 7.5% that summer, the worst
reading since the 1930s. The Post Office raised first-class postage to 4
cents that August 1, up from 3 cents, the rate’s first change since 1932.
Washington answered the Soviet Union’s technological lead that summer
too: Eisenhower signed the National Aeronautics and Space Act on July 29,
establishing NASA, which opened for business that October 1 to compete
with the Soviet space program after the shock of Sputnik the year before.
Consumer prices finished 1958 191.9% above their 1913
level. The minimum wage held at $1.00 an hour, and first-class postage
rose to 4 cents that August, the first increase since 1932.
Every 1958 amount converts to 1959 at the same ratio, 1.01: $1,000 becomes
$1,007, and $10,000 becomes $10,069.
Amount in 1958
Value in 1959
$1.00
$1.01
$5.00
$5.03
$10.00
$10.07
$20.00
$20.14
$50.00
$50.35
$100
$101
$500
$503
$1,000
$1,007
$5,000
$5,035
$10,000
$10,069
$100,000
$100,692
$1,000,000
$1,006,920
Inflation by spending category, 1958–1959
Between 1958 and 1959, medical care rose the most, up 4.4%, while food fell 1.7%, against 0.7% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1958
spending costs in 1959, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1958 →
All items (CPI-U)
0.69%
$101
Medical care
4.37%
$104
Transportation
4.20%
$104
Core (all items less food & energy)
2.03%
$102
Energy
1.86%
$102
Apparel
0.90%
$101
Food
-1.66%
$98.34
Not shown because the BLS began these indexes after 1958: housing (1967–), recreation (1993–), education & communication (1993–).
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1958
$100 from 1958grew to $101 by 1959; each row
shows the CPI, that year's inflation rate, and the running value.
In 1959, prices rose 0.7% and $100 from 1958 had the buying
power of $101; 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 1958 to 1959: $100 is worth $101 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1958-to-1959/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1958 to 1959. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1958-to-1959/