Between 1958 and 1990, the Consumer Price Index went from 28.9 to 130.7.
Cumulatively, prices increased 352.2%, which works out to an average of
4.83% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1958 bought what
$0.22 buys in 1990.
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.
The headline number is an average. Individual categories moved very differently over this
period. Here is what $100 of 1958 spending costs in 1990, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1958 →
All items (CPI-U)
4.83%
$452
Medical care
6.67%
$790
Energy
4.99%
$475
Core (all items less food & energy)
4.87%
$458
Food
4.73%
$438
Transportation
4.60%
$421
Apparel
3.25%
$278
Not shown because the BLS began these indexes after 1958: housing (1967–), recreation (1993–), education & communication (1993–).
Long periods are sampled every 2 years; the calculator above covers any pair of years.
The destination year: 1990
In 1990, the median U.S. household earned about $29,900, gas averaged $1.15 a
gallon, and mailing a letter cost a quarter. Inflation ran hot at 5.4% for the
year, its highest rate since 1982, pushed up by an oil shock after Iraq’s
invasion of Kuwait, and the economy tipped into recession that summer. It was
the last gasp of elevated inflation before the long calm of the 1990s.
MLA: “Inflation from 1958 to 1990: $100 is worth $452 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1958-to-1990/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1958 to 1990. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1958-to-1990/