$100 in 1958 is worth $251 in 1979,
because prices increased 151.2% over that period, an average of
4.48% a year.
$100 in 1958 has
the same buying power as
$251
in 1979
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
151.2%
Average inflation rate
4.48% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$251
Price difference ($100 base)
$151
CPI in 1958
28.9
CPI in 1979
72.6
Inflation in 1958
2.85%
Inflation in 1979
11.35%
$100 in 1958 → 1979
$251
$100 in 1979 → 1958
$39.81
What happened to prices between 1958 and 1979
Between 1958 and 1979, the Consumer Price Index went from 28.9 to 72.6.
Cumulatively, prices increased 151.2%, which works out to an average of
4.48% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1958 bought what
$0.40 buys in 1979: the 1958 dollar
lost 60.2% of its purchasing power over
these 21 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 1979 at the same ratio, 2.51: $1,000 becomes
$2,512, and $10,000 becomes $25,121.
Amount in 1958
Value in 1979
$1.00
$2.51
$5.00
$12.56
$10.00
$25.12
$20.00
$50.24
$50.00
$126
$100
$251
$500
$1,256
$1,000
$2,512
$5,000
$12,561
$10,000
$25,121
$100,000
$251,211
$1,000,000
$2,512,111
Inflation by spending category, 1958–1979
Between 1958 and 1979, medical care rose the most, up 227.7%, while apparel rose the least, up 90.4%, against 151.2% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1958
spending costs in 1979, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1958 →
All items (CPI-U)
4.48%
$251
Medical care
5.81%
$328
Energy
5.46%
$306
Food
4.74%
$265
Transportation
4.39%
$247
Core (all items less food & energy)
4.32%
$243
Apparel
3.11%
$190
Not shown because the BLS began these indexes after 1958: housing (1967–), recreation (1993–), education & communication (1993–).
Decade by decade: 1958 to 1979
Prices climbed fastest in the 1970s, averaging 7.21% a year, and slowest in the 1950s (1.20% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1958–1979 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
1970–1979
7.21%
87.1%
$251
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1958
$100 from 1958 had already become $120 by
1968, on its way to $251 in 1979; each row shows the CPI, that
year's inflation rate, and the running value.
Within the span, inflation peaked at 11.3% in 1979, and the smallest rise was 0.7% in 1959.
In 1979, prices rose 11.3% and $100 from 1958 had the buying
power of $251; the year's average CPI of 72.6 is the level
behind every 1979 figure on this page.
Consumer prices rose 11.3% in 1979, the fastest pace since 1947 and the
decade’s second bout of double-digit inflation after 1974’s
11.0%. The trigger was familiar: the Iranian Revolution that January halted
Iran’s oil exports, and panic buying amplified the shortage, sending crude
prices sharply higher over the year and motorists back into gas lines, with
some states reviving the odd-even rationing last seen in 1974. Paul Volcker,
appointed Federal Reserve chairman that August, responded with a strategy
shift announced that October: the Fed would target the money supply directly
and let interest rates rise as high as necessary to break inflation, whatever
the short-term cost. That cost would arrive as a deep recession in 1981-82,
but by year’s end 1979 had already delivered enough turmoil on its own. A
reactor at the Three Mile Island plant near Harrisburg, Pennsylvania,
suffered a partial core meltdown that March 28, the worst commercial nuclear
accident in U.S. history, and on November 4, militants in Tehran stormed the
U.S. embassy and took 52 Americans hostage, beginning a 444-day crisis that
consumed the rest of Carter’s presidency. A median household earned $16,461
in 1979, a new home sold for a median $62,900, and gas jumped to 86 cents a
gallon. Consumer prices finished the decade 97.8% above where they stood in
1969, very nearly doubling in ten years, and stood 633.3%
above their 1913 level. The 1970s had opened with inflation
cooling from the 1969 spike and closed with prices rising faster than at any
point since 1947, setting up the Great
Inflation’s final act in 1980.
MLA: “Inflation from 1958 to 1979: $100 is worth $251 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1958-to-1979/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1958 to 1979. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1958-to-1979/