$100 in 1958 is worth $637 in 2003,
because prices increased 536.7% over that period, an average of
4.20% a year.
$100 in 1958 has
the same buying power as
$637
in 2003
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
536.7%
Average inflation rate
4.20% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$637
Price difference ($100 base)
$537
CPI in 1958
28.9
CPI in 2003
184
Inflation in 1958
2.85%
Inflation in 2003
2.28%
$100 in 1958 → 2003
$637
$100 in 2003 → 1958
$15.71
What happened to prices between 1958 and 2003
Between 1958 and 2003, the Consumer Price Index went from 28.9 to 184.
Cumulatively, prices increased 536.7%, which works out to an average of
4.20% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1958 bought what
$0.16 buys in 2003: the 1958 dollar
lost 84.3% of its purchasing power over
these 45 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 2003 at the same ratio, 6.37: $1,000 becomes
$6,367, and $10,000 becomes $63,668.
Amount in 1958
Value in 2003
$1.00
$6.37
$5.00
$31.83
$10.00
$63.67
$20.00
$127
$50.00
$318
$100
$637
$500
$3,183
$1,000
$6,367
$5,000
$31,834
$10,000
$63,668
$100,000
$636,678
$1,000,000
$6,366,782
Inflation by spending category, 1958–2003
Between 1958 and 2003, medical care rose the most, up 1342.2%, while apparel rose the least, up 171.1%, against 536.7% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1958
spending costs in 2003, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1958 →
All items (CPI-U)
4.20%
$637
Medical care
6.11%
$1,442
Core (all items less food & energy)
4.26%
$653
Energy
4.19%
$635
Food
4.05%
$596
Transportation
3.87%
$551
Apparel
2.24%
$271
Not shown because the BLS began these indexes after 1958: housing (1967–), recreation (1993–), education & communication (1993–).
Decade by decade: 1958 to 2003
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 1958–2003 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
1980–1990
4.72%
58.6%
$452
1990–2000
2.80%
31.8%
$596
2000–2003
2.23%
6.9%
$637
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1958
$100 from 1958 had already become $285 by
1980, on its way to $637 in 2003; 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: 2003
In 2003, prices rose 2.3% and $100 from 1958 had the buying
power of $637; the year's average CPI of 184 is the level
behind every 2003 figure on this page.
Inflation was 2.3% in 2003, up from 1.6% in 2002, as gasoline climbed from $1.36 to $1.59 a
gallon around the March invasion of Iraq. Even so, the Federal Reserve spent the year worried
about prices being too low: on June 25 it cut its policy rate to 1.0%, the lowest since 1958,
and said the risk of deflation, though small, deserved a response. The median household earned
about $43,300 and a new home cost roughly $195,000. Congress passed a second round of tax cuts
in May, and the economy grew faster in the second half of the year than at any point since
1999. Hiring lagged the recovery, and unemployment peaked at 6.3% in June. A first-class stamp
stayed at 37 cents and the federal minimum wage at $5.15.
MLA: “Inflation from 1958 to 2003: $100 is worth $637 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1958-to-2003/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1958 to 2003. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1958-to-2003/