$100 in 1959 is worth $111 in 1966,
because prices increased 11.3% over that period, an average of
1.55% a year.
$100 in 1959 has
the same buying power as
$111
in 1966
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
11.3%
Average inflation rate
1.55% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$111
Price difference ($100 base)
$11.34
CPI in 1959
29.1
CPI in 1966
32.4
Inflation in 1959
0.69%
Inflation in 1966
2.86%
$100 in 1959 → 1966
$111
$100 in 1966 → 1959
$89.81
What happened to prices between 1959 and 1966
Between 1959 and 1966, the Consumer Price Index went from 29.1 to 32.4.
Cumulatively, prices increased 11.3%, which works out to an average of
1.55% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1959 bought what
$0.90 buys in 1966: the 1959 dollar
lost 10.2% of its purchasing power over
these 7 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 1966 at the same ratio, 1.11: $1,000 becomes
$1,113, and $10,000 becomes $11,134.
Amount in 1959
Value in 1966
$1.00
$1.11
$5.00
$5.57
$10.00
$11.13
$20.00
$22.27
$50.00
$55.67
$100
$111
$500
$557
$1,000
$1,113
$5,000
$5,567
$10,000
$11,134
$100,000
$111,340
$1,000,000
$1,113,402
Inflation by spending category, 1959–1966
Between 1959 and 1966, medical care rose the most, up 22.3%, while energy rose the least, up 6.4%, against 11.3% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1959
spending costs in 1966, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1959 →
All items (CPI-U)
1.55%
$111
Medical care
2.92%
$122
Food
1.86%
$114
Core (all items less food & energy)
1.49%
$111
Apparel
1.22%
$109
Transportation
1.16%
$108
Energy
0.89%
$106
Not shown because the BLS began these indexes after 1959: housing (1967–), recreation (1993–), education & communication (1993–).
Decade by decade: 1959 to 1966
Prices climbed fastest in the 1950s, averaging 1.72% a year, and slowest in the 1960s (1.52% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1959–1966 change:
Years
Avg. yearly inflation
Price change
$100 from 1959, at end
1959–1960
1.72%
1.7%
$102
1960–1966
1.52%
9.5%
$111
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1959
$100 from 1959 had already become $104 by
1962, on its way to $111 in 1966; each row shows the CPI, that
year's inflation rate, and the running value.
Within the span, inflation peaked at 2.9% in 1966, and the smallest rise was 1.0% in 1962.
In 1966, prices rose 2.9% and $100 from 1959 had the buying
power of $111; the year's average CPI of 32.4 is the level
behind every 1966 figure on this page.
Consumer prices rose 2.9% in 1966, nearly double 1965’s
1.6% as Vietnam War spending kept climbing without an offsetting tax
increase, pushing the economy closer to capacity and prices higher along
with it. Medicare coverage took effect that July 1, extending federal
health insurance to roughly 19 million Americans age 65 and older under
the program signed into law the year before. The Federal Reserve had
already moved to cool the overheating economy, raising its discount rate
the previous December over White House objections; the tightening carried
into 1966 as the first postwar credit crunch, freezing parts of the
housing and municipal bond markets even as inflation kept climbing. Congress widened
the wage floor’s reach that September 23, when the Fair Labor Standards
Amendments of 1966 set a $1.40 minimum wage effective the following
February and extended coverage to roughly 9 million more workers in
retail, hospitals, schools, and other services not previously covered.
Consumer prices finished 1966 227.3% above their 1913
level. First-class postage held at 5 cents, and the minimum wage stayed at
$1.25 an hour for the rest of the year.
MLA: “Inflation from 1959 to 1966: $100 is worth $111 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1959-to-1966/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1959 to 1966. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1959-to-1966/