$100 in 1958 is worth $896 in 2020,
because prices increased 795.5% over that period, an average of
3.60% a year.
$100 in 1958 has
the same buying power as
$896
in 2020
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
795.5%
Average inflation rate
3.60% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$896
Price difference ($100 base)
$796
CPI in 1958
28.9
CPI in 2020
258.811
Inflation in 1958
2.85%
Inflation in 2020
1.23%
$100 in 1958 → 2020
$896
$100 in 2020 → 1958
$11.17
What happened to prices between 1958 and 2020
Between 1958 and 2020, the Consumer Price Index went from 28.9 to 258.811.
Cumulatively, prices increased 795.5%, which works out to an average of
3.60% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1958 bought what
$0.11 buys in 2020: the 1958 dollar
lost 88.8% of its purchasing power over
these 62 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 2020 at the same ratio, 8.96: $1,000 becomes
$8,955, and $10,000 becomes $89,554.
Amount in 1958
Value in 2020
$1.00
$8.96
$5.00
$44.78
$10.00
$89.55
$20.00
$179
$50.00
$448
$100
$896
$500
$4,478
$1,000
$8,955
$5,000
$44,777
$10,000
$89,554
$100,000
$895,540
$1,000,000
$8,955,398
Inflation by spending category, 1958–2020
Between 1958 and 2020, medical care rose the most, up 2418.8%, while apparel rose the least, up 164.8%, against 795.5% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1958
spending costs in 2020, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1958 →
All items (CPI-U)
3.60%
$896
Medical care
5.34%
$2,519
Energy
3.64%
$916
Core (all items less food & energy)
3.62%
$904
Food
3.58%
$885
Transportation
3.20%
$704
Apparel
1.58%
$265
Not shown because the BLS began these indexes after 1958: housing (1967–), recreation (1993–), education & communication (1993–).
Decade by decade: 1958 to 2020
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 1958–2020 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
2010–2020
1.73%
18.7%
$896
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1958
$100 from 1958 had already become $409 by
1988, on its way to $896 in 2020; 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 5 years; the calculator above covers any pair of years.
The destination year: 2020
In 2020, prices rose 1.2% and $100 from 1958 had the buying
power of $896; the year's average CPI of 258.811 is the level
behind every 2020 figure on this page.
2020 was the year the pandemic rewired the price data without triggering the
inflation spike that followed it. Consumer prices rose just 1.2% for the
year, the mildest pace since 2015, as COVID-19 lockdowns emptied roads,
closed airports, and crushed energy demand. Oil told the starkest story: on
April 20, U.S. crude futures fell to about negative $37 a barrel, the first
negative settlement in the market’s history, as storage capacity ran out and no one
wanted the physical barrels. Gasoline followed it down, falling to about
$1.80 a gallon nationally that month before recovering to average $2.17 for
the year. Grocery prices moved the other way: pantry stocking and
meatpacking-plant disruptions pushed food-at-home costs up faster than
usual, a rare case of food and energy pulling the index in opposite
directions. Washington answered with the $2.2 trillion CARES Act, signed
March 27, which sent $1,200 payments to most adults and added $600 a week
to unemployment benefits as states ordered widespread business closures.
The Federal Reserve cut its policy rate to near zero in two emergency moves
that same month and pledged to buy Treasury and mortgage bonds “in the
amounts needed” to keep credit markets working, an open-ended commitment
beyond even its 2008 response. None of it showed up in the CPI yet: the
stimulus, the supply shocks, and the reopening whiplash that followed would
build into the fastest inflation in four decades over the next two years.
MLA: “Inflation from 1958 to 2020: $100 is worth $896 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1958-to-2020/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1958 to 2020. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1958-to-2020/