$100 in 1958 is worth $334 in 1982,
because prices increased 233.9% over that period, an average of
5.15% a year.
$100 in 1958 has
the same buying power as
$334
in 1982
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
233.9%
Average inflation rate
5.15% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$334
Price difference ($100 base)
$234
CPI in 1958
28.9
CPI in 1982
96.5
Inflation in 1958
2.85%
Inflation in 1982
6.16%
$100 in 1958 → 1982
$334
$100 in 1982 → 1958
$29.95
What happened to prices between 1958 and 1982
Between 1958 and 1982, the Consumer Price Index went from 28.9 to 96.5.
Cumulatively, prices increased 233.9%, which works out to an average of
5.15% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1958 bought what
$0.30 buys in 1982: the 1958 dollar
lost 70.1% of its purchasing power over
these 24 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 1982 at the same ratio, 3.34: $1,000 becomes
$3,339, and $10,000 becomes $33,391.
Amount in 1958
Value in 1982
$1.00
$3.34
$5.00
$16.70
$10.00
$33.39
$20.00
$66.78
$50.00
$167
$100
$334
$500
$1,670
$1,000
$3,339
$5,000
$16,696
$10,000
$33,391
$100,000
$333,910
$1,000,000
$3,339,100
Inflation by spending category, 1958–1982
Between 1958 and 1982, energy rose the most, up 361.4%, while apparel rose the least, up 119.3%, against 233.9% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1958
spending costs in 1982, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1958 →
All items (CPI-U)
5.15%
$334
Energy
6.58%
$461
Medical care
6.46%
$449
Transportation
5.22%
$339
Core (all items less food & energy)
5.02%
$324
Food
5.00%
$323
Apparel
3.33%
$219
Not shown because the BLS began these indexes after 1958: housing (1967–), recreation (1993–), education & communication (1993–).
Decade by decade: 1958 to 1982
Prices climbed fastest in the 1980s, averaging 8.22% a year, and slowest in the 1950s (1.20% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1958–1982 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
1970–1980
7.82%
112.4%
$285
1980–1982
8.22%
17.1%
$334
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1958
$100 from 1958 had already become $134 by
1970, on its way to $334 in 1982; each row shows the CPI, that
year's inflation rate, and the running value.
Within the span, inflation peaked at 13.5% in 1980, and the smallest rise was 0.7% in 1959.
In 1982, prices rose 6.2% and $100 from 1958 had the buying
power of $334; the year's average CPI of 96.5 is the level
behind every 1982 figure on this page.
1982 was the hard bottom of the disinflation Paul Volcker had set in motion.
Consumer prices rose just 6.2% for the year, roughly half of 1981’s rate and a
fraction of the 13.5% peak from two years earlier. The price fell because
demand had been crushed: the recession that began in July 1981 did not
officially end until November 1982, and unemployment kept climbing even as
the economy technically began to recover, reaching 10.8% in November and
December, the highest rate since the Great Depression. Manufacturing and
construction, especially the auto and housing industries starved of credit by
double-digit interest rates, bore the worst of it. Abroad, Mexico’s August
announcement that it could not service its foreign debt opened a Latin
American debt crisis that spread across the region and forced the Federal
Reserve and IMF into emergency lending. The stress on the financial system
pushed Volcker to start easing interest rates that October, stepping back
from the strict money-supply targets he had followed since 1979. Markets read
the shift correctly: the Dow Jones Industrial Average bottomed at 776.92 in
mid-August, and the rally that followed became the opening leg of the 1980s
bull market. By year’s end, the trade-off Volcker had bet on was becoming
visible: much lower inflation, at the cost of the worst unemployment in 40
years.
MLA: “Inflation from 1958 to 1982: $100 is worth $334 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1958-to-1982/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1958 to 1982. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1958-to-1982/