$100 in 1958 is worth $140 in 1971,
because prices increased 40.1% over that period, an average of
2.63% a year.
$100 in 1958 has
the same buying power as
$140
in 1971
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
40.1%
Average inflation rate
2.63% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$140
Price difference ($100 base)
$40.14
CPI in 1958
28.9
CPI in 1971
40.5
Inflation in 1958
2.85%
Inflation in 1971
4.38%
$100 in 1958 → 1971
$140
$100 in 1971 → 1958
$71.36
What happened to prices between 1958 and 1971
Between 1958 and 1971, the Consumer Price Index went from 28.9 to 40.5.
Cumulatively, prices increased 40.1%, which works out to an average of
2.63% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1958 bought what
$0.71 buys in 1971: the 1958 dollar
lost 28.6% of its purchasing power over
these 13 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 1971 at the same ratio, 1.40: $1,000 becomes
$1,401, and $10,000 becomes $14,014.
Amount in 1958
Value in 1971
$1.00
$1.40
$5.00
$7.01
$10.00
$14.01
$20.00
$28.03
$50.00
$70.07
$100
$140
$500
$701
$1,000
$1,401
$5,000
$7,007
$10,000
$14,014
$100,000
$140,138
$1,000,000
$1,401,384
Inflation by spending category, 1958–1971
Between 1958 and 1971, medical care rose the most, up 75.2%, while energy rose the least, up 23.3%, against 40.1% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1958
spending costs in 1971, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1958 →
All items (CPI-U)
2.63%
$140
Medical care
4.41%
$175
Core (all items less food & energy)
2.86%
$144
Transportation
2.51%
$138
Apparel
2.45%
$137
Food
2.26%
$134
Energy
1.62%
$123
Not shown because the BLS began these indexes after 1958: housing (1967–), recreation (1993–), education & communication (1993–).
Decade by decade: 1958 to 1971
Prices climbed fastest in the 1970s, averaging 4.38% a year, and slowest in the 1950s (1.20% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1958–1971 change:
Years
Avg. yearly inflation
Price change
$100 from 1958, at end
1958–1960
1.20%
2.4%
$102
1960–1970
2.74%
31.1%
$134
1970–1971
4.38%
4.4%
$140
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1958
$100 from 1958 had already become $107 by
1964, on its way to $140 in 1971; each row shows the CPI, that
year's inflation rate, and the running value.
Within the span, inflation peaked at 5.7% in 1970, and the smallest rise was 0.7% in 1959.
In 1971, prices rose 4.4% and $100 from 1958 had the buying
power of $140; the year's average CPI of 40.5 is the level
behind every 1971 figure on this page.
Consumer prices rose 4.4% in 1971, down from 1970’s 5.7% as
the recession that started in December 1969 finally cooled demand. The bigger
economic story came that August 15, when President Nixon closed the “gold
window” that let foreign governments exchange dollars for gold, ending the
Bretton Woods system that had anchored the dollar since World War II. The
same address announced a 90-day freeze on wages and prices, the first
peacetime controls the country had seen, an attempt to break inflationary
expectations without the slower grind of tighter money. The “Nixon Shock,” as
it came to be known, let the dollar float against other currencies for the
first time and set the stage for a wage-and-price-control regime that would
run in various forms into 1973. Politically, the country lowered its voting
age that year: the 26th Amendment, ratified July 1, extended the vote to
18-year-olds, capping a campaign built on the argument that men old enough to
be drafted to Vietnam were old enough to vote for the people who sent them.
The Postal Service, independent since 1970’s reorganization, raised
first-class postage from 6 to 8 cents that May. A median household earned
$9,028 in 1971, up from $8,734 the year before, while gas held near 36 cents
a gallon and a new home sold for a median $25,200. Consumer prices stood
309.1% above their 1913 level by year’s end, still years away
from the double-digit inflation the controls were meant to prevent.
MLA: “Inflation from 1958 to 1971: $100 is worth $140 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1958-to-1971/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1958 to 1971. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1958-to-1971/