$100 in 1958 is worth $778 in 2011,
because prices increased 678.3% over that period, an average of
3.95% a year.
$100 in 1958 has
the same buying power as
$778
in 2011
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
678.3%
Average inflation rate
3.95% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$778
Price difference ($100 base)
$678
CPI in 1958
28.9
CPI in 2011
224.939
Inflation in 1958
2.85%
Inflation in 2011
3.16%
$100 in 1958 → 2011
$778
$100 in 2011 → 1958
$12.85
What happened to prices between 1958 and 2011
Between 1958 and 2011, the Consumer Price Index went from 28.9 to 224.939.
Cumulatively, prices increased 678.3%, which works out to an average of
3.95% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1958 bought what
$0.13 buys in 2011: the 1958 dollar
lost 87.2% of its purchasing power over
these 53 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 2011 at the same ratio, 7.78: $1,000 becomes
$7,783, and $10,000 becomes $77,834.
Amount in 1958
Value in 2011
$1.00
$7.78
$5.00
$38.92
$10.00
$77.83
$20.00
$156
$50.00
$389
$100
$778
$500
$3,892
$1,000
$7,783
$5,000
$38,917
$10,000
$77,834
$100,000
$778,336
$1,000,000
$7,783,356
Inflation by spending category, 1958–2011
Between 1958 and 2011, medical care rose the most, up 1843.0%, while apparel rose the least, up 173.8%, against 678.3% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1958
spending costs in 2011, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1958 →
All items (CPI-U)
3.95%
$778
Medical care
5.76%
$1,943
Energy
4.69%
$1,134
Core (all items less food & energy)
3.90%
$760
Food
3.89%
$754
Transportation
3.86%
$743
Apparel
1.92%
$274
Not shown because the BLS began these indexes after 1958: housing (1967–), recreation (1993–), education & communication (1993–).
Decade by decade: 1958 to 2011
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 1958–2011 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
2000–2010
2.39%
26.6%
$755
2010–2011
3.16%
3.2%
$778
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1958
$100 from 1958 had already become $360 by
1984, on its way to $778 in 2011; 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: 2011
In 2011, prices rose 3.2% and $100 from 1958 had the buying
power of $778; the year's average CPI of 224.939 is the level
behind every 2011 figure on this page.
2011 brought the fastest inflation of the post-recession recovery. Consumer
prices rose 3.2%, roughly double the 2010 pace, and the cause was mostly at the
pump and the grocery store. Unrest across the Middle East and North Africa,
including the war in Libya, pushed gasoline to an annual average of $3.52 a
gallon, the highest yearly figure recorded to that point. Food prices also
rose faster than the overall index.
Household budgets did not keep up. The median household income was $50,054,
barely above the year before, and the median new home sold for about $227,200.
The federal minimum wage stayed at $7.25 and a first-class stamp at 44 cents.
Policy stayed loose. The Federal Reserve kept its policy rate near zero and
launched Operation Twist in September to lower long-term rates. Washington
spent the summer in a debt-ceiling fight that ended in S&P’s August downgrade
of the U.S. credit rating. The inflation spike proved temporary: the
2011 rate was the high point of the early 2010s, and prices grew more slowly
in every year that followed until 2017.
MLA: “Inflation from 1958 to 2011: $100 is worth $778 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1958-to-2011/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1958 to 2011. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1958-to-2011/