$100 in 1959 is worth $342 in 1983,
because prices increased 242.3% over that period, an average of
5.26% a year.
$100 in 1959 has
the same buying power as
$342
in 1983
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
242.3%
Average inflation rate
5.26% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$342
Price difference ($100 base)
$242
CPI in 1959
29.1
CPI in 1983
99.6
Inflation in 1959
0.69%
Inflation in 1983
3.21%
$100 in 1959 → 1983
$342
$100 in 1983 → 1959
$29.22
What happened to prices between 1959 and 1983
Between 1959 and 1983, the Consumer Price Index went from 29.1 to 99.6.
Cumulatively, prices increased 242.3%, which works out to an average of
5.26% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1959 bought what
$0.29 buys in 1983: the 1959 dollar
lost 70.8% of its purchasing power over
these 24 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 1983 at the same ratio, 3.42: $1,000 becomes
$3,423, and $10,000 becomes $34,227.
Amount in 1959
Value in 1983
$1.00
$3.42
$5.00
$17.11
$10.00
$34.23
$20.00
$68.45
$50.00
$171
$100
$342
$500
$1,711
$1,000
$3,423
$5,000
$17,113
$10,000
$34,227
$100,000
$342,268
$1,000,000
$3,422,680
Inflation by spending category, 1959–1983
Between 1959 and 1983, medical care rose the most, up 367.9%, while apparel rose the least, up 122.7%, against 242.3% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1959
spending costs in 1983, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1959 →
All items (CPI-U)
5.26%
$342
Medical care
6.64%
$468
Energy
6.53%
$456
Food
5.16%
$335
Transportation
5.14%
$333
Core (all items less food & energy)
5.10%
$330
Apparel
3.39%
$223
Not shown because the BLS began these indexes after 1959: housing (1967–), recreation (1993–), education & communication (1993–).
Decade by decade: 1959 to 1983
Prices climbed fastest in the 1970s, averaging 7.82% a year, and slowest in the 1950s (1.72% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1959–1983 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
1980–1983
6.52%
20.9%
$342
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1959
$100 from 1959 had already become $139 by
1971, on its way to $342 in 1983; 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 1983, prices rose 3.2% and $100 from 1959 had the buying
power of $342; the year's average CPI of 99.6 is the level
behind every 1983 figure on this page.
1983 confirmed that the Volcker disinflation was not a one-year fluke.
Consumer prices rose 3.2% for the year, nearly identical to 1982’s pace and a
fraction of the double-digit rates of 1980 and 1981. With inflation tamed and
interest rates coming down, the economy roared back from the 1981-82
recession: real GDP grew 4.6%, the strongest calendar-year growth since the
1950s, and unemployment fell from its 10.8% peak to 8.3% by December. Housing
and auto sales, both starved of credit during the recession, led the
rebound. In April, Congress and President Reagan enacted the Social Security
Amendments of 1983, a bipartisan rescue of a system projected to run out of
money within months. The law gradually raised the full retirement age from
65 to 67, began taxing benefits for higher-income retirees, and delayed that
year’s cost-of-living adjustment by six months. For a program whose benefits
had been indexed to the CPI since 1975, the amendments were the first major
sign that inflation-proofing Social Security carried a cost Congress could
not simply legislate away. By year’s end, gas averaged $1.16 a gallon and
mailing a letter still cost 20 cents, prices that had barely moved since
1981, a sharp break from the constant increases of the previous decade.
MLA: “Inflation from 1959 to 1983: $100 is worth $342 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1959-to-1983/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1959 to 1983. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1959-to-1983/