$100 in 1958 is worth $429 in 1989,
because prices increased 329.1% over that period, an average of
4.81% a year.
$100 in 1958 has
the same buying power as
$429
in 1989
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
329.1%
Average inflation rate
4.81% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$429
Price difference ($100 base)
$329
CPI in 1958
28.9
CPI in 1989
124
Inflation in 1958
2.85%
Inflation in 1989
4.82%
$100 in 1958 → 1989
$429
$100 in 1989 → 1958
$23.31
What happened to prices between 1958 and 1989
Between 1958 and 1989, the Consumer Price Index went from 28.9 to 124.
Cumulatively, prices increased 329.1%, which works out to an average of
4.81% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1958 bought what
$0.23 buys in 1989: the 1958 dollar
lost 76.7% of its purchasing power over
these 31 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 1989 at the same ratio, 4.29: $1,000 becomes
$4,291, and $10,000 becomes $42,907.
Amount in 1958
Value in 1989
$1.00
$4.29
$5.00
$21.45
$10.00
$42.91
$20.00
$85.81
$50.00
$215
$100
$429
$500
$2,145
$1,000
$4,291
$5,000
$21,453
$10,000
$42,907
$100,000
$429,066
$1,000,000
$4,290,657
Inflation by spending category, 1958–1989
Between 1958 and 1989, medical care rose the most, up 624.8%, while apparel rose the least, up 165.9%, against 329.1% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1958
spending costs in 1989, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1958 →
All items (CPI-U)
4.81%
$429
Medical care
6.60%
$725
Energy
4.88%
$439
Core (all items less food & energy)
4.86%
$436
Food
4.69%
$414
Transportation
4.56%
$399
Apparel
3.21%
$266
Not shown because the BLS began these indexes after 1958: housing (1967–), recreation (1993–), education & communication (1993–).
Decade by decade: 1958 to 1989
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 1958–1989 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
1980–1989
4.65%
50.5%
$429
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1958
$100 from 1958 had already become $171 by
1974, on its way to $429 in 1989; 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.
Long periods are sampled every 2 years; the calculator above covers any pair of years.
The destination year: 1989
In 1989, prices rose 4.8% and $100 from 1958 had the buying
power of $429; the year's average CPI of 124 is the level
behind every 1989 figure on this page.
1989 closed out a decade that began in economic crisis and ended in a long,
calmer expansion. Inflation for the year came in at 4.8%, higher than the
mid-decade lull but still roughly a third of the 13.5% peak that had opened
the decade in 1980. The federal minimum wage, unchanged at $3.35 an hour
since January 1981, had gone longer without an increase than at any point
since Congress created it, and had lost close to a third of its purchasing
power to inflation in the meantime; lawmakers would finally raise it to
$3.80 the following April. The decade’s other unfinished business came due
in August, when Congress passed FIRREA, the law that created the Resolution
Trust Corporation to seize and sell off the hundreds of savings and loan
institutions that a decade of deregulation and risky lending had left
insolvent, a bailout that eventually cost taxpayers over $100 billion. On
Wall Street, the recovery was already complete: the Dow Jones Industrial
Average closed 1989 at a record high, just over two years after Black
Monday’s 22.6% single-day crash, capping the bull market that had begun at
the Dow’s 776 low in August 1982. Between the S&L bailout, a wage floor
eroded by years without a raise, and a stock market at new highs, 1989
captured how unevenly the decade’s disinflation had been felt.
MLA: “Inflation from 1958 to 1989: $100 is worth $429 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1958-to-1989/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1958 to 1989. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1958-to-1989/