$100 in 1959 is worth $139 in 1971,
because prices increased 39.2% over that period, an average of
2.79% a year.
$100 in 1959 has
the same buying power as
$139
in 1971
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
39.2%
Average inflation rate
2.79% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$139
Price difference ($100 base)
$39.18
CPI in 1959
29.1
CPI in 1971
40.5
Inflation in 1959
0.69%
Inflation in 1971
4.38%
$100 in 1959 → 1971
$139
$100 in 1971 → 1959
$71.85
What happened to prices between 1959 and 1971
Between 1959 and 1971, the Consumer Price Index went from 29.1 to 40.5.
Cumulatively, prices increased 39.2%, which works out to an average of
2.79% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1959 bought what
$0.72 buys in 1971: the 1959 dollar
lost 28.1% of its purchasing power over
these 12 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 1971 at the same ratio, 1.39: $1,000 becomes
$1,392, and $10,000 becomes $13,918.
Amount in 1959
Value in 1971
$1.00
$1.39
$5.00
$6.96
$10.00
$13.92
$20.00
$27.84
$50.00
$69.59
$100
$139
$500
$696
$1,000
$1,392
$5,000
$6,959
$10,000
$13,918
$100,000
$139,175
$1,000,000
$1,391,753
Inflation by spending category, 1959–1971
Between 1959 and 1971, medical care rose the most, up 67.9%, while energy rose the least, up 21.0%, against 39.2% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1959
spending costs in 1971, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1959 →
All items (CPI-U)
2.79%
$139
Medical care
4.41%
$168
Core (all items less food & energy)
2.93%
$141
Food
2.60%
$136
Apparel
2.58%
$136
Transportation
2.38%
$133
Energy
1.60%
$121
Not shown because the BLS began these indexes after 1959: housing (1967–), recreation (1993–), education & communication (1993–).
Decade by decade: 1959 to 1971
Prices climbed fastest in the 1970s, averaging 4.38% a year, and slowest in the 1950s (1.72% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1959–1971 change:
Years
Avg. yearly inflation
Price change
$100 from 1959, at end
1959–1960
1.72%
1.7%
$102
1960–1970
2.74%
31.1%
$133
1970–1971
4.38%
4.4%
$139
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1959
$100 from 1959 had already become $108 by
1965, on its way to $139 in 1971; each row shows the CPI, that
year's inflation rate, and the running value.
Within the span, inflation peaked at 5.7% in 1970, and the smallest rise was 1.0% in 1962.
In 1971, prices rose 4.4% and $100 from 1959 had the buying
power of $139; the year's average CPI of 40.5 is the level
behind every 1971 figure on this page.
Consumer prices rose 4.4% in 1971, down from 1970’s 5.7% as
the recession that started in December 1969 finally cooled demand. The bigger
economic story came that August 15, when President Nixon closed the “gold
window” that let foreign governments exchange dollars for gold, ending the
Bretton Woods system that had anchored the dollar since World War II. The
same address announced a 90-day freeze on wages and prices, the first
peacetime controls the country had seen, an attempt to break inflationary
expectations without the slower grind of tighter money. The “Nixon Shock,” as
it came to be known, let the dollar float against other currencies for the
first time and set the stage for a wage-and-price-control regime that would
run in various forms into 1973. Politically, the country lowered its voting
age that year: the 26th Amendment, ratified July 1, extended the vote to
18-year-olds, capping a campaign built on the argument that men old enough to
be drafted to Vietnam were old enough to vote for the people who sent them.
The Postal Service, independent since 1970’s reorganization, raised
first-class postage from 6 to 8 cents that May. A median household earned
$9,028 in 1971, up from $8,734 the year before, while gas held near 36 cents
a gallon and a new home sold for a median $25,200. Consumer prices stood
309.1% above their 1913 level by year’s end, still years away
from the double-digit inflation the controls were meant to prevent.
MLA: “Inflation from 1959 to 1971: $100 is worth $139 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1959-to-1971/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1959 to 1971. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1959-to-1971/