Between 1958 and 2022, the Consumer Price Index went from 28.9 to 292.655.
Cumulatively, prices increased 912.6%, which works out to an average of
3.68% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1958 bought what
$0.10 buys in 2022.
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.
The headline number is an average. Individual categories moved very differently over this
period. Here is what $100 of 1958 spending costs in 2022, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1958 →
All items (CPI-U)
3.68%
$1,013
Medical care
5.26%
$2,653
Energy
4.19%
$1,387
Food
3.68%
$1,011
Core (all items less food & energy)
3.65%
$994
Transportation
3.55%
$931
Apparel
1.65%
$285
Not shown because the BLS began these indexes after 1958: housing (1967–), recreation (1993–), education & communication (1993–).
Long periods are sampled every 5 years; the calculator above covers any pair of years.
The destination year: 2022
2022 was the year inflation returned. Consumer prices rose 8.0% on average,
the worst since 1981, driven by pandemic-era supply chains, stimulus-fueled
demand, and an energy shock from the war in Ukraine. Gas briefly topped $5 a
gallon nationally for the first time ever, and “inflation” became the
top-ranked economic concern in nearly every poll of American households.
MLA: “Inflation from 1958 to 2022: $100 is worth $1,013 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1958-to-2022/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1958 to 2022. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1958-to-2022/