$100 in 1959 is worth $107 in 1964,
because prices increased 6.5% over that period, an average of
1.27% a year.
$100 in 1959 has
the same buying power as
$107
in 1964
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
6.5%
Average inflation rate
1.27% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$107
Price difference ($100 base)
$6.53
CPI in 1959
29.1
CPI in 1964
31
Inflation in 1959
0.69%
Inflation in 1964
1.31%
$100 in 1959 → 1964
$107
$100 in 1964 → 1959
$93.87
What happened to prices between 1959 and 1964
Between 1959 and 1964, the Consumer Price Index went from 29.1 to 31.
Cumulatively, prices increased 6.5%, which works out to an average of
1.27% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1959 bought what
$0.94 buys in 1964: the 1959 dollar
lost 6.1% of its purchasing power over
these 5 years.
Consumer prices rose 0.7% in 1959, down sharply from 1958’s
2.8% as the economy recovered briskly from the year before’s recession,
with output and employment both rebounding through the year. The map of
the country changed that year for the first time since 1912: Alaska
joined the union January 3, and Hawaii followed August 21, completing the
50-state United States. Ninety miles from Florida, Cuba changed hands
that January, when Fidel Castro’s guerrilla forces overthrew President
Fulgencio Batista, who fled the country on the 1st; Castro entered Havana
on the 8th, beginning a Communist government that would define Cold War
tensions in the hemisphere for decades. Labor and management fought their
longest battle of the postwar era that summer: the United Steelworkers
walked out July 15 in a dispute over work rules, the longest strike in the
industry’s history, before a federal court granted the Eisenhower
administration a Taft-Hartley back-to-work order that November. Consumer
prices finished the decade 193.9% above their 1913 level,
up 20.7% from where they stood in 1950. First-class
postage held at 4 cents, and the minimum wage stayed at $1.00 an hour.
Every 1959 amount converts to 1964 at the same ratio, 1.07: $1,000 becomes
$1,065, and $10,000 becomes $10,653.
Amount in 1959
Value in 1964
$1.00
$1.07
$5.00
$5.33
$10.00
$10.65
$20.00
$21.31
$50.00
$53.26
$100
$107
$500
$533
$1,000
$1,065
$5,000
$5,326
$10,000
$10,653
$100,000
$106,529
$1,000,000
$1,065,292
Inflation by spending category, 1959–1964
Between 1959 and 1964, medical care rose the most, up 14.4%, while energy rose the least, up 2.7%, against 6.5% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1959
spending costs in 1964, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1959 →
All items (CPI-U)
1.27%
$107
Medical care
2.73%
$114
Core (all items less food & energy)
1.35%
$107
Food
1.18%
$106
Transportation
1.05%
$105
Apparel
1.00%
$105
Energy
0.54%
$103
Not shown because the BLS began these indexes after 1959: housing (1967–), recreation (1993–), education & communication (1993–).
Decade by decade: 1959 to 1964
Prices climbed fastest in the 1950s, averaging 1.72% a year, and slowest in the 1960s (1.16% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1959–1964 change:
Years
Avg. yearly inflation
Price change
$100 from 1959, at end
1959–1960
1.72%
1.7%
$102
1960–1964
1.16%
4.7%
$107
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1959
$100 from 1959 had already become $103 by
1961, on its way to $107 in 1964; each row shows the CPI, that
year's inflation rate, and the running value.
Within the span, inflation peaked at 1.7% in 1960, and the smallest rise was 1.0% in 1962.
In 1964, prices rose 1.3% and $100 from 1959 had the buying
power of $107; the year's average CPI of 31 is the level
behind every 1964 figure on this page.
Consumer prices rose 1.3% in 1964, matching 1963’s pace
even as a large federal tax cut took effect that year. The Revenue Act of
1964, signed February 26, lowered individual and corporate tax rates
significantly, the cut Kennedy had proposed the year before his death and
Johnson pushed through Congress as a Keynesian bet that lower taxes would
spur enough growth without stoking prices. Congress reshaped civil rights
law that July 2, when the Civil Rights Act of 1964 outlawed discrimination
based on race, color, religion, sex, and national origin in employment
and public accommodations, the most sweeping civil rights legislation
since Reconstruction. Vietnam policy shifted that August, when Congress
passed the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution after reported attacks on U.S. Navy
destroyers, authorizing Johnson to use military force in Vietnam without
a formal declaration of war. American pop culture changed that February
too: the Beatles landed at New York’s Kennedy Airport and played the Ed
Sullivan Show two days later for an estimated 73 million viewers,
igniting the “British Invasion.” Consumer prices finished 1964 213.1%
above their 1913 level. First-class postage held at 5
cents, and the minimum wage stayed at $1.25 an hour.
MLA: “Inflation from 1959 to 1964: $100 is worth $107 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1959-to-1964/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1959 to 1964. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1959-to-1964/