$100 in 1958 is worth $102 in 1960,
because prices increased 2.4% over that period, an average of
1.20% a year.
$100 in 1958 has
the same buying power as
$102
in 1960
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
2.4%
Average inflation rate
1.20% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$102
Price difference ($100 base)
$2.42
CPI in 1958
28.9
CPI in 1960
29.6
Inflation in 1958
2.85%
Inflation in 1960
1.72%
$100 in 1958 → 1960
$102
$100 in 1960 → 1958
$97.64
What happened to prices between 1958 and 1960
Between 1958 and 1960, the Consumer Price Index went from 28.9 to 29.6.
Cumulatively, prices increased 2.4%, which works out to an average of
1.20% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1958 bought what
$0.98 buys in 1960: the 1958 dollar
lost 2.4% of its purchasing power over
these 2 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 1960 at the same ratio, 1.02: $1,000 becomes
$1,024, and $10,000 becomes $10,242.
Amount in 1958
Value in 1960
$1.00
$1.02
$5.00
$5.12
$10.00
$10.24
$20.00
$20.48
$50.00
$51.21
$100
$102
$500
$512
$1,000
$1,024
$5,000
$5,121
$10,000
$10,242
$100,000
$102,422
$1,000,000
$1,024,221
Inflation by spending category, 1958–1960
Between 1958 and 1960, medical care rose the most, up 8.3%, while food fell 0.7%, against 2.4% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1958
spending costs in 1960, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1958 →
All items (CPI-U)
1.20%
$102
Medical care
4.04%
$108
Transportation
2.08%
$104
Energy
2.07%
$104
Core (all items less food & energy)
1.68%
$103
Apparel
1.23%
$102
Food
-0.33%
$99.34
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 1958 had already become $101 by
1959, on its way to $102 in 1960; each row shows the CPI, that
year's inflation rate, and the running value.
Within the span, inflation peaked at 1.7% in 1960, and the smallest rise was 0.7% in 1959.
In 1960, prices rose 1.7% and $100 from 1958 had the buying
power of $102; the year's average CPI of 29.6 is the level
behind every 1960 figure on this page.
Consumer prices rose 1.7% in 1960, up from 1959’s 0.7% even
as the economy slipped into recession that April, a downturn that would
prove the shortest since World War II. The year’s defining political
moment came that November, when John F. Kennedy narrowly defeated Richard
Nixon in one of the closest presidential elections in U.S. history,
decided by roughly two-tenths of a percentage point in the popular vote.
Television played a new role in the race: the first-ever televised
presidential debate that September, watched by an estimated 70 million
people, was widely seen as favoring the telegenic Kennedy. Civil rights
protest took a new form that February, when four Black freshmen at North
Carolina A&T State University sat down at a whites-only Woolworth’s lunch
counter in Greensboro and refused to leave; the sit-in tactic spread to
dozens of Southern cities within weeks. Cold War tensions flared that May,
when a Soviet missile downed an American U-2 spy plane deep inside Soviet
airspace. The pilot, Francis Gary Powers, was captured alive, embarrassing
the Eisenhower administration and collapsing a Paris summit called to ease
relations with Moscow. Consumer prices finished 1960 199.0% above their
1913 level. First-class postage held at 4 cents, and the
minimum wage stayed at $1.00 an hour.
MLA: “Inflation from 1958 to 1960: $100 is worth $102 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1958-to-1960/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1958 to 1960. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1958-to-1960/