$100 in 1958 is worth $938 in 2021,
because prices increased 837.6% over that period, an average of
3.62% a year.
$100 in 1958 has
the same buying power as
$938
in 2021
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
837.6%
Average inflation rate
3.62% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$938
Price difference ($100 base)
$838
CPI in 1958
28.9
CPI in 2021
270.97
Inflation in 1958
2.85%
Inflation in 2021
4.70%
$100 in 1958 → 2021
$938
$100 in 2021 → 1958
$10.67
What happened to prices between 1958 and 2021
Between 1958 and 2021, the Consumer Price Index went from 28.9 to 270.97.
Cumulatively, prices increased 837.6%, which works out to an average of
3.62% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1958 bought what
$0.11 buys in 2021: the 1958 dollar
lost 89.3% of its purchasing power over
these 63 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 2021 at the same ratio, 9.38: $1,000 becomes
$9,376, and $10,000 becomes $93,761.
Amount in 1958
Value in 2021
$1.00
$9.38
$5.00
$46.88
$10.00
$93.76
$20.00
$188
$50.00
$469
$100
$938
$500
$4,688
$1,000
$9,376
$5,000
$46,881
$10,000
$93,761
$100,000
$937,612
$1,000,000
$9,376,125
Inflation by spending category, 1958–2021
Between 1958 and 2021, medical care rose the most, up 2449.9%, while apparel rose the least, up 171.3%, against 837.6% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1958
spending costs in 2021, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1958 →
All items (CPI-U)
3.62%
$938
Medical care
5.28%
$2,550
Energy
3.89%
$1,108
Core (all items less food & energy)
3.61%
$937
Food
3.58%
$920
Transportation
3.37%
$806
Apparel
1.60%
$271
Not shown because the BLS began these indexes after 1958: housing (1967–), recreation (1993–), education & communication (1993–).
Decade by decade: 1958 to 2021
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 1958–2021 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
2020–2021
4.70%
4.7%
$938
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1958
$100 from 1958 had already become $409 by
1988, on its way to $938 in 2021; 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: 2021
In 2021, prices rose 4.7% and $100 from 1958 had the buying
power of $938; the year's average CPI of 270.97 is the level
behind every 2021 figure on this page.
2021 was the year inflation stopped being background noise. Consumer prices
rose 4.7% on average for the year, and the pace kept building as the months
went on: by December, the 12-month rate had reached 7.0%, the highest since
1982. The proximate cause was a supply chain that could not keep up with a
fast-reopening economy. A global semiconductor shortage choked new car
production and pushed used vehicle prices up by more than a third, the
single largest line item in the year’s inflation math. Lumber, appliances,
and shipping capacity told versions of the same story: demand snapped back
faster than factories, ports, and truckers could handle it. Washington added
fuel in March with the $1.9 trillion American Rescue Plan, on top of the
relief already in the pipeline since 2020. For most of the year, the Federal
Reserve called the price surge “transitory,” a temporary reopening effect
expected to fade on its own, and held its policy rate near zero. By
November, with inflation still climbing, the Fed reversed course and began
winding down its bond purchases, the first step toward the rate hikes that
would follow in 2022. Gas averaged $3.01 a gallon for the year, up from
about $2.17 in 2020, while the federal minimum wage held at $7.25,
unchanged since 2009. In hindsight, 2021 reads as the hinge year: the point
where “transitory” inflation became the multi-year fight the Fed spent the
next two years trying to win.
MLA: “Inflation from 1958 to 2021: $100 is worth $938 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1958-to-2021/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1958 to 2021. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1958-to-2021/