$100 in 1959 is worth $169 in 1974,
because prices increased 69.4% over that period, an average of
3.58% a year.
$100 in 1959 has
the same buying power as
$169
in 1974
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
69.4%
Average inflation rate
3.58% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$169
Price difference ($100 base)
$69.42
CPI in 1959
29.1
CPI in 1974
49.3
Inflation in 1959
0.69%
Inflation in 1974
11.04%
$100 in 1959 → 1974
$169
$100 in 1974 → 1959
$59.03
What happened to prices between 1959 and 1974
Between 1959 and 1974, the Consumer Price Index went from 29.1 to 49.3.
Cumulatively, prices increased 69.4%, which works out to an average of
3.58% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1959 bought what
$0.59 buys in 1974: the 1959 dollar
lost 41.0% of its purchasing power over
these 15 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 1974 at the same ratio, 1.69: $1,000 becomes
$1,694, and $10,000 becomes $16,942.
Amount in 1959
Value in 1974
$1.00
$1.69
$5.00
$8.47
$10.00
$16.94
$20.00
$33.88
$50.00
$84.71
$100
$169
$500
$847
$1,000
$1,694
$5,000
$8,471
$10,000
$16,942
$100,000
$169,416
$1,000,000
$1,694,158
Inflation by spending category, 1959–1974
Between 1959 and 1974, medical care rose the most, up 97.2%, while transportation rose the least, up 53.7%, against 69.4% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1959
spending costs in 1974, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1959 →
All items (CPI-U)
3.58%
$169
Medical care
4.63%
$197
Food
4.21%
$186
Energy
3.76%
$174
Core (all items less food & energy)
3.34%
$164
Apparel
2.93%
$154
Transportation
2.91%
$154
Not shown because the BLS began these indexes after 1959: housing (1967–), recreation (1993–), education & communication (1993–).
Decade by decade: 1959 to 1974
Prices climbed fastest in the 1970s, averaging 6.17% a year, and slowest in the 1950s (1.72% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1959–1974 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
1970–1974
6.17%
27.1%
$169
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1959
$100 from 1959 had already become $111 by
1966, on its way to $169 in 1974; each row shows the CPI, that
year's inflation rate, and the running value.
Within the span, inflation peaked at 11.0% in 1974, and the smallest rise was 1.0% in 1962.
In 1974, prices rose 11.0% and $100 from 1959 had the buying
power of $169; the year's average CPI of 49.3 is the level
behind every 1974 figure on this page.
1974 was the year the postwar economy broke its old rules. Consumer prices
rose 11.0%, the fastest annual increase since 1947, as the Arab oil embargo
that ran from October 1973 to March 1974 roughly quadrupled the price of
crude oil worldwide. Gasoline, which had averaged 38.5 cents a gallon in
1973, jumped to 53.2 cents, and shortages forced many states into odd-even
rationing at the pump. Nixon’s wage and price controls, in place in some form
since 1971, expired at the end of April, removing the last brake on prices
just as the oil shock hit. Nixon himself resigned in August over Watergate,
and Gerald Ford’s response to inflation, a voluntary “Whip Inflation Now”
campaign built around lapel buttons, became a symbol of how little
conventional politics could do against the problem. Prices kept climbing even
as the economy weakened: a recession that started in November 1973 dragged
on, the Dow fell to a bear-market bottom of 577.60 in December, and
unemployment was already rising toward the 9% it would reach in 1975. The
combination of rising prices and a shrinking economy gave the decade its
name: stagflation.
MLA: “Inflation from 1959 to 1974: $100 is worth $169 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1959-to-1974/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1959 to 1974. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1959-to-1974/