$100 in 1958 is worth $127 in 1969,
because prices increased 27.0% over that period, an average of
2.20% a year.
$100 in 1958 has
the same buying power as
$127
in 1969
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
27.0%
Average inflation rate
2.20% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$127
Price difference ($100 base)
$26.99
CPI in 1958
28.9
CPI in 1969
36.7
Inflation in 1958
2.85%
Inflation in 1969
5.46%
$100 in 1958 → 1969
$127
$100 in 1969 → 1958
$78.75
What happened to prices between 1958 and 1969
Between 1958 and 1969, the Consumer Price Index went from 28.9 to 36.7.
Cumulatively, prices increased 27.0%, which works out to an average of
2.20% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1958 bought what
$0.79 buys in 1969: the 1958 dollar
lost 21.3% of its purchasing power over
these 11 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 1969 at the same ratio, 1.27: $1,000 becomes
$1,270, and $10,000 becomes $12,699.
Amount in 1958
Value in 1969
$1.00
$1.27
$5.00
$6.35
$10.00
$12.70
$20.00
$25.40
$50.00
$63.49
$100
$127
$500
$635
$1,000
$1,270
$5,000
$6,349
$10,000
$12,699
$100,000
$126,990
$1,000,000
$1,269,896
Inflation by spending category, 1958–1969
Between 1958 and 1969, medical care rose the most, up 54.9%, while energy rose the least, up 15.3%, against 27.0% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1958
spending costs in 1969, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1958 →
All items (CPI-U)
2.20%
$127
Medical care
4.06%
$155
Core (all items less food & energy)
2.39%
$130
Apparel
2.22%
$127
Transportation
2.04%
$125
Food
1.89%
$123
Energy
1.31%
$115
Not shown because the BLS began these indexes after 1958: housing (1967–), recreation (1993–), education & communication (1993–).
Decade by decade: 1958 to 1969
Prices climbed fastest in the 1960s, averaging 2.42% a year, and slowest in the 1950s (1.20% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1958–1969 change:
Years
Avg. yearly inflation
Price change
$100 from 1958, at end
1958–1960
1.20%
2.4%
$102
1960–1969
2.42%
24.0%
$127
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1958
$100 from 1958 had already become $106 by
1963, on its way to $127 in 1969; each row shows the CPI, that
year's inflation rate, and the running value.
Within the span, inflation peaked at 5.5% in 1969, and the smallest rise was 0.7% in 1959.
In 1969, prices rose 5.5% and $100 from 1958 had the buying
power of $127; the year's average CPI of 36.7 is the level
behind every 1969 figure on this page.
Consumer prices rose 5.5% in 1969, up from 1968’s 4.2% and
the fastest pace since the Korean War era, as years of Vietnam War
spending, a labor market with unemployment under 4%, and expansionary
fiscal policy finally showed up fully in prices. Richard Nixon was
inaugurated that January 20, pledging to curb rising prices without wage
and price controls, a position he would reverse within two years. The
decade’s most triumphant moment came that July 20, when Neil Armstrong
and Buzz Aldrin walked on the Moon while Michael Collins orbited above,
fulfilling the goal Kennedy had set in 1961 of landing a man on the lunar
surface before the decade’s end. Culture and protest both reached new
extremes that year: an estimated 400,000 people gathered on a dairy farm
in Bethel, New York, for the Woodstock music festival that August, and a
police raid on the Stonewall Inn in New York’s Greenwich Village that
June touched off days of resistance now credited with launching the
modern gay rights movement. Consumer prices finished the decade 270.7%
above their 1913 level, up 24.0% from where they stood in
1960. The 1960s had opened with inflation near 1% a year and closed with
prices rising faster than at any point since Korea, setting up the Great
Inflation that would define the
1970s. First-class postage held at 6 cents, and the minimum wage stayed
at $1.60 an hour.
MLA: “Inflation from 1958 to 1969: $100 is worth $127 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1958-to-1969/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1958 to 1969. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1958-to-1969/