$100 in 1959 is worth $312 in 1981,
because prices increased 212.4% over that period, an average of
5.31% a year.
$100 in 1959 has
the same buying power as
$312
in 1981
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
212.4%
Average inflation rate
5.31% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$312
Price difference ($100 base)
$212
CPI in 1959
29.1
CPI in 1981
90.9
Inflation in 1959
0.69%
Inflation in 1981
10.32%
$100 in 1959 → 1981
$312
$100 in 1981 → 1959
$32.01
What happened to prices between 1959 and 1981
Between 1959 and 1981, the Consumer Price Index went from 29.1 to 90.9.
Cumulatively, prices increased 212.4%, which works out to an average of
5.31% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1959 bought what
$0.32 buys in 1981: the 1959 dollar
lost 68.0% of its purchasing power over
these 22 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 1981 at the same ratio, 3.12: $1,000 becomes
$3,124, and $10,000 becomes $31,237.
Amount in 1959
Value in 1981
$1.00
$3.12
$5.00
$15.62
$10.00
$31.24
$20.00
$62.47
$50.00
$156
$100
$312
$500
$1,562
$1,000
$3,124
$5,000
$15,619
$10,000
$31,237
$100,000
$312,371
$1,000,000
$3,123,711
Inflation by spending category, 1959–1981
Between 1959 and 1981, energy rose the most, up 346.1%, while apparel rose the least, up 111.8%, against 212.4% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1959
spending costs in 1981, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1959 →
All items (CPI-U)
5.31%
$312
Energy
7.03%
$446
Medical care
6.33%
$386
Food
5.36%
$315
Transportation
5.32%
$313
Core (all items less food & energy)
5.05%
$295
Apparel
3.47%
$212
Not shown because the BLS began these indexes after 1959: housing (1967–), recreation (1993–), education & communication (1993–).
Decade by decade: 1959 to 1981
Prices climbed fastest in the 1980s, averaging 10.32% a year, and slowest in the 1950s (1.72% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1959–1981 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
1970–1980
7.82%
112.4%
$283
1980–1981
10.32%
10.3%
$312
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1959
$100 from 1959 had already become $133 by
1970, on its way to $312 in 1981; each row shows the CPI, that
year's inflation rate, and the running value.
Within the span, inflation peaked at 13.5% in 1980, and the smallest rise was 1.0% in 1962.
In 1981, prices rose 10.3% and $100 from 1959 had the buying
power of $312; the year's average CPI of 90.9 is the level
behind every 1981 figure on this page.
1981 was the year the inflation fever finally broke, at an extraordinary price.
Consumer prices rose 10.3%, the second year of back-to-back double-digit
inflation and the last time the U.S. would see one. To end it, Paul Volcker’s
Federal Reserve drove its policy rate above 19% and let borrowing costs go
where they may: a 30-year mortgage cost more than 18% by autumn, car loans and
business credit froze, and homebuilders mailed the Fed two-by-fours in protest.
The squeeze tipped the economy into recession in July, the deep 1981–82
downturn that would push unemployment past 10%. But it worked. Inflation fell
by nearly half within a year and to under 4% by 1983, the disinflation that
defined the following two decades. Even the price of mailing a letter told the
year’s story: postage went up twice in eight months.
MLA: “Inflation from 1959 to 1981: $100 is worth $312 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1959-to-1981/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1959 to 1981. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1959-to-1981/