$100 in 1959 is worth $196 in 1976,
because prices increased 95.5% over that period, an average of
4.02% a year.
$100 in 1959 has
the same buying power as
$196
in 1976
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
95.5%
Average inflation rate
4.02% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$196
Price difference ($100 base)
$95.53
CPI in 1959
29.1
CPI in 1976
56.9
Inflation in 1959
0.69%
Inflation in 1976
5.76%
$100 in 1959 → 1976
$196
$100 in 1976 → 1959
$51.14
What happened to prices between 1959 and 1976
Between 1959 and 1976, the Consumer Price Index went from 29.1 to 56.9.
Cumulatively, prices increased 95.5%, which works out to an average of
4.02% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1959 bought what
$0.51 buys in 1976: the 1959 dollar
lost 48.9% of its purchasing power over
these 17 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 1976 at the same ratio, 1.96: $1,000 becomes
$1,955, and $10,000 becomes $19,553.
Amount in 1959
Value in 1976
$1.00
$1.96
$5.00
$9.78
$10.00
$19.55
$20.00
$39.11
$50.00
$97.77
$100
$196
$500
$978
$1,000
$1,955
$5,000
$9,777
$10,000
$19,553
$100,000
$195,533
$1,000,000
$1,955,326
Inflation by spending category, 1959–1976
Between 1959 and 1976, medical care rose the most, up 141.9%, while apparel rose the least, up 67.1%, against 95.5% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1959
spending costs in 1976, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1959 →
All items (CPI-U)
4.02%
$196
Medical care
5.33%
$242
Food
4.38%
$207
Energy
4.34%
$206
Core (all items less food & energy)
3.85%
$190
Transportation
3.68%
$185
Apparel
3.07%
$167
Not shown because the BLS began these indexes after 1959: housing (1967–), recreation (1993–), education & communication (1993–).
Decade by decade: 1959 to 1976
Prices climbed fastest in the 1970s, averaging 6.59% a year, and slowest in the 1950s (1.72% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1959–1976 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
1970–1976
6.59%
46.6%
$196
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1959
$100 from 1959 had already become $115 by
1967, on its way to $196 in 1976; 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 1976, prices rose 5.8% and $100 from 1959 had the buying
power of $196; the year's average CPI of 56.9 is the level
behind every 1976 figure on this page.
Consumer prices rose 5.8% in 1976, the calmest pace since 1972,
as the economy pulled out of the 1973-75 recession and price growth settled
to roughly half its 1974 peak. The recovery gave Americans
room to celebrate: tall ships filled New York Harbor and fireworks lit cities
nationwide on July 4 for the country’s bicentennial, a rare moment of shared
celebration after Vietnam and Watergate. Politically, Jimmy Carter, a former
Georgia governor running as a Washington outsider, defeated incumbent Gerald
Ford that November, campaigning on restoring trust in government and bringing
down inflation and unemployment together. In a California garage, Steve
Jobs, Steve Wozniak, and Ronald Wayne founded Apple Computer that April to
sell the Apple I, a bare circuit board aimed at electronics hobbyists, a
business that looked far from consequential at the time. First-class
postage, which had risen to 13 cents that past December 31, held there
through the year, the longest stretch without a rate change since the Postal
Service’s creation. A median household earned $12,686 in 1976, a new home
sold for a median $44,200, and gas averaged 59 cents a gallon. Consumer
prices stood 474.7% above their 1913 level, a calm interlude
before inflation turned back up.
MLA: “Inflation from 1959 to 1976: $100 is worth $196 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1959-to-1976/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1959 to 1976. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1959-to-1976/