$100 in 1958 is worth $360 in 1984,
because prices increased 259.5% over that period, an average of
5.04% a year.
$100 in 1958 has
the same buying power as
$360
in 1984
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
259.5%
Average inflation rate
5.04% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$360
Price difference ($100 base)
$260
CPI in 1958
28.9
CPI in 1984
103.9
Inflation in 1958
2.85%
Inflation in 1984
4.32%
$100 in 1958 → 1984
$360
$100 in 1984 → 1958
$27.82
What happened to prices between 1958 and 1984
Between 1958 and 1984, the Consumer Price Index went from 28.9 to 103.9.
Cumulatively, prices increased 259.5%, which works out to an average of
5.04% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1958 bought what
$0.28 buys in 1984: the 1958 dollar
lost 72.2% of its purchasing power over
these 26 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 1984 at the same ratio, 3.60: $1,000 becomes
$3,595, and $10,000 becomes $35,952.
Amount in 1958
Value in 1984
$1.00
$3.60
$5.00
$17.98
$10.00
$35.95
$20.00
$71.90
$50.00
$180
$100
$360
$500
$1,798
$1,000
$3,595
$5,000
$17,976
$10,000
$35,952
$100,000
$359,516
$1,000,000
$3,595,156
Inflation by spending category, 1958–1984
Between 1958 and 1984, medical care rose the most, up 418.4%, while apparel rose the least, up 128.9%, against 259.5% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1958
spending costs in 1984, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1958 →
All items (CPI-U)
5.04%
$360
Medical care
6.53%
$518
Energy
6.13%
$469
Transportation
5.08%
$363
Core (all items less food & energy)
4.98%
$353
Food
4.84%
$342
Apparel
3.24%
$229
Not shown because the BLS began these indexes after 1958: housing (1967–), recreation (1993–), education & communication (1993–).
Decade by decade: 1958 to 1984
Prices climbed fastest in the 1970s, averaging 7.82% a year, and slowest in the 1950s (1.20% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1958–1984 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
1980–1984
5.97%
26.1%
$360
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1958
$100 from 1958 had already become $140 by
1971, on its way to $360 in 1984; 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 1984, prices rose 4.3% and $100 from 1958 had the buying
power of $360; the year's average CPI of 103.9 is the level
behind every 1984 figure on this page.
1984 was the year the recovery became a boom. Real GDP grew 7.2%, the
fastest calendar-year growth since 1951, as the tax cuts passed in 1981
combined with falling interest rates and rebuilding consumer confidence.
Unemployment, which had topped 10.8% just two years earlier, fell below
7.5%. Inflation ticked up to 4.3% from 3.2% the year before, but nothing
close to a return of the 1970s wage-price spiral: the Federal Reserve under
Paul Volcker kept policy tight enough to hold the line while growth ran hot.
The strength of the expansion, branded “Morning in America” in President
Reagan’s reelection campaign, carried him to a 49-state landslide over
Walter Mondale that November, at the time the widest electoral-vote margin
in U.S. history. For households, the numbers behind the slogan were
concrete: median income rose to about $22,400, and a gallon of gas cost
$1.13, roughly what it had cost three years earlier even as wages kept
climbing. The contrast with 1980, when 13.5% inflation and interest rates
near 20% had defined the economy, could not have been sharper.
MLA: “Inflation from 1958 to 1984: $100 is worth $360 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1958-to-1984/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1958 to 1984. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1958-to-1984/