$100 in 1959 is worth $144 in 1972,
because prices increased 43.6% over that period, an average of
2.82% a year.
$100 in 1959 has
the same buying power as
$144
in 1972
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
43.6%
Average inflation rate
2.82% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$144
Price difference ($100 base)
$43.64
CPI in 1959
29.1
CPI in 1972
41.8
Inflation in 1959
0.69%
Inflation in 1972
3.21%
$100 in 1959 → 1972
$144
$100 in 1972 → 1959
$69.62
What happened to prices between 1959 and 1972
Between 1959 and 1972, the Consumer Price Index went from 29.1 to 41.8.
Cumulatively, prices increased 43.6%, which works out to an average of
2.82% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1959 bought what
$0.70 buys in 1972: the 1959 dollar
lost 30.4% of its purchasing power over
these 13 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 1972 at the same ratio, 1.44: $1,000 becomes
$1,436, and $10,000 becomes $14,364.
Amount in 1959
Value in 1972
$1.00
$1.44
$5.00
$7.18
$10.00
$14.36
$20.00
$28.73
$50.00
$71.82
$100
$144
$500
$718
$1,000
$1,436
$5,000
$7,182
$10,000
$14,364
$100,000
$143,643
$1,000,000
$1,436,426
Inflation by spending category, 1959–1972
Between 1959 and 1972, medical care rose the most, up 73.5%, while energy rose the least, up 24.2%, against 43.6% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1959
spending costs in 1972, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1959 →
All items (CPI-U)
2.82%
$144
Medical care
4.33%
$173
Core (all items less food & energy)
2.94%
$146
Food
2.72%
$142
Apparel
2.53%
$138
Transportation
2.27%
$134
Energy
1.68%
$124
Not shown because the BLS began these indexes after 1959: housing (1967–), recreation (1993–), education & communication (1993–).
Decade by decade: 1959 to 1972
Prices climbed fastest in the 1970s, averaging 3.79% a year, and slowest in the 1950s (1.72% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1959–1972 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
1970–1972
3.79%
7.7%
$144
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1959
$100 from 1959 had already become $108 by
1965, on its way to $144 in 1972; 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 1972, prices rose 3.2% and $100 from 1959 had the buying
power of $144; the year's average CPI of 41.8 is the level
behind every 1972 figure on this page.
Consumer prices rose just 3.2% in 1972, the calmest year of the decade and a
sharp break from the previous two years. The relief was largely engineered:
Nixon’s wage and price controls, imposed as a 90-day freeze in August 1971,
had settled into a series of “phases” that capped how much businesses could
raise prices through the election year. Economists would later argue the
controls mostly deferred inflation rather than curing it, storing up pressure
that broke loose once they were lifted. Nixon spent political capital on
foreign policy that year, traveling to Beijing that February in the first
visit by a sitting U.S. president to the People’s Republic of China, a trip
that began normalizing relations Washington had frozen since 1949. Closer to
home, five men were arrested breaking into the Democratic National
Committee’s offices at the Watergate complex that June 17, an event that drew
little attention at the time but would eventually force Nixon from office.
None of it dented his re-election bid: Nixon carried 49 states against
Democrat George McGovern that November, helped by an economy that, on paper,
looked more stable than it had in years. A median household earned $9,697 in
1972, a new home sold for a median $27,600, and gas held near 36 cents a
gallon for a third straight year. Consumer prices stood 322.2% above their
1913 level, a lull that would not survive contact with the
controls’ expiration and the oil shock still to come.
MLA: “Inflation from 1959 to 1972: $100 is worth $144 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1959-to-1972/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1959 to 1972. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1959-to-1972/