$100 in 1958 is worth $654 in 2004,
because prices increased 553.6% over that period, an average of
4.17% a year.
$100 in 1958 has
the same buying power as
$654
in 2004
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
553.6%
Average inflation rate
4.17% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$654
Price difference ($100 base)
$554
CPI in 1958
28.9
CPI in 2004
188.9
Inflation in 1958
2.85%
Inflation in 2004
2.66%
$100 in 1958 → 2004
$654
$100 in 2004 → 1958
$15.30
What happened to prices between 1958 and 2004
Between 1958 and 2004, the Consumer Price Index went from 28.9 to 188.9.
Cumulatively, prices increased 553.6%, which works out to an average of
4.17% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1958 bought what
$0.15 buys in 2004: the 1958 dollar
lost 84.7% of its purchasing power over
these 46 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 2004 at the same ratio, 6.54: $1,000 becomes
$6,536, and $10,000 becomes $65,363.
Amount in 1958
Value in 2004
$1.00
$6.54
$5.00
$32.68
$10.00
$65.36
$20.00
$131
$50.00
$327
$100
$654
$500
$3,268
$1,000
$6,536
$5,000
$32,682
$10,000
$65,363
$100,000
$653,633
$1,000,000
$6,536,332
Inflation by spending category, 1958–2004
Between 1958 and 2004, medical care rose the most, up 1405.3%, while apparel rose the least, up 170.0%, against 553.6% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1958
spending costs in 2004, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1958 →
All items (CPI-U)
4.17%
$654
Medical care
6.07%
$1,505
Energy
4.33%
$704
Core (all items less food & energy)
4.20%
$664
Food
4.03%
$617
Transportation
3.86%
$570
Apparel
2.18%
$270
Not shown because the BLS began these indexes after 1958: housing (1967–), recreation (1993–), education & communication (1993–).
Decade by decade: 1958 to 2004
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 1958–2004 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
2000–2004
2.34%
9.7%
$654
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1958
$100 from 1958 had already become $285 by
1980, on its way to $654 in 2004; 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: 2004
In 2004, prices rose 2.7% and $100 from 1958 had the buying
power of $654; the year's average CPI of 188.9 is the level
behind every 2004 figure on this page.
Consumer prices rose 2.7% in 2004, with a 29-cent jump in the price of gasoline, to $1.88 a
gallon, doing much of the work. Crude oil passed $50 a barrel in October on rising demand
from China and India. The Federal Reserve raised rates for the first time in four years on
June 30, to 1.25%, and it kept going: 17 consecutive quarter-point increases took the rate to
5.25% by June 2006. Housing was already running ahead of incomes. The median household earned
about $44,300, up 2.3% from 2003, while the median new home sold for $221,000, up about 13%. A
first-class stamp stayed at 37 cents and the federal minimum wage at $5.15, unchanged since
1997.
MLA: “Inflation from 1958 to 2004: $100 is worth $654 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1958-to-2004/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1958 to 2004. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1958-to-2004/