$100 in 1958 is worth $742 in 2009,
because prices increased 642.3% over that period, an average of
4.01% a year.
$100 in 1958 has
the same buying power as
$742
in 2009
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
642.3%
Average inflation rate
4.01% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$742
Price difference ($100 base)
$642
CPI in 1958
28.9
CPI in 2009
214.537
Inflation in 1958
2.85%
Inflation in 2009
-0.36%
$100 in 1958 → 2009
$742
$100 in 2009 → 1958
$13.47
What happened to prices between 1958 and 2009
Between 1958 and 2009, the Consumer Price Index went from 28.9 to 214.537.
Cumulatively, prices increased 642.3%, which works out to an average of
4.01% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1958 bought what
$0.13 buys in 2009: the 1958 dollar
lost 86.5% of its purchasing power over
these 51 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 2009 at the same ratio, 7.42: $1,000 becomes
$7,423, and $10,000 becomes $74,234.
Amount in 1958
Value in 2009
$1.00
$7.42
$5.00
$37.12
$10.00
$74.23
$20.00
$148
$50.00
$371
$100
$742
$500
$3,712
$1,000
$7,423
$5,000
$37,117
$10,000
$74,234
$100,000
$742,343
$1,000,000
$7,423,426
Inflation by spending category, 1958–2009
Between 1958 and 2009, medical care rose the most, up 1723.4%, while apparel rose the least, up 169.2%, against 642.3% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1958
spending costs in 2009, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1958 →
All items (CPI-U)
4.01%
$742
Medical care
5.86%
$1,823
Energy
4.40%
$898
Core (all items less food & energy)
4.00%
$741
Food
3.95%
$722
Transportation
3.66%
$627
Apparel
1.96%
$269
Not shown because the BLS began these indexes after 1958: housing (1967–), recreation (1993–), education & communication (1993–).
Decade by decade: 1958 to 2009
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 1958–2009 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
2000–2009
2.47%
24.6%
$742
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1958
$100 from 1958 had already become $360 by
1984, on its way to $742 in 2009; 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 prices fell 0.4% in 2009, the deepest deflation of the period.
Long periods are sampled every 2 years; the calculator above covers any pair of years.
The destination year: 2009
In 2009, prices fell 0.4% and $100 from 1958 had the buying
power of $742; the year's average CPI of 214.537 is the level
behind every 2009 figure on this page.
2009 is the rarest kind of year in the modern price data: one where the cost
of living went down. The CPI fell 0.4%, the first full-year deflation
since 1955, as the Great Recession hollowed out demand and oil unwound from
its $147 spike the summer before. Gasoline that had cost over $4 a gallon in
July 2008 averaged $2.35 in 2009, and that energy collapse dragged the
12-month inflation rate to −2.1% by July, the deepest reading since 1950.
Policymakers treated falling prices not as relief but as a warning: deflation
raises the real weight of debt precisely when households are drowning in it,
which is why the Federal Reserve pinned interest rates near zero, began buying
bonds by the hundreds of billions, and Washington passed a $787 billion
stimulus. The medicine took: prices stabilized within a year, and 2009 remains
the textbook case of why central banks fear deflation more than moderate
inflation.
MLA: “Inflation from 1958 to 2009: $100 is worth $742 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1958-to-2009/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1958 to 2009. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1958-to-2009/