$100 in 1959 is worth $357 in 1984,
because prices increased 257.0% over that period, an average of
5.22% a year.
$100 in 1959 has
the same buying power as
$357
in 1984
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
257.0%
Average inflation rate
5.22% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$357
Price difference ($100 base)
$257
CPI in 1959
29.1
CPI in 1984
103.9
Inflation in 1959
0.69%
Inflation in 1984
4.32%
$100 in 1959 → 1984
$357
$100 in 1984 → 1959
$28.01
What happened to prices between 1959 and 1984
Between 1959 and 1984, the Consumer Price Index went from 29.1 to 103.9.
Cumulatively, prices increased 257.0%, which works out to an average of
5.22% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1959 bought what
$0.28 buys in 1984: the 1959 dollar
lost 72.0% of its purchasing power over
these 25 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 1984 at the same ratio, 3.57: $1,000 becomes
$3,570, and $10,000 becomes $35,704.
Amount in 1959
Value in 1984
$1.00
$3.57
$5.00
$17.85
$10.00
$35.70
$20.00
$71.41
$50.00
$179
$100
$357
$500
$1,785
$1,000
$3,570
$5,000
$17,852
$10,000
$35,704
$100,000
$357,045
$1,000,000
$3,570,447
Inflation by spending category, 1959–1984
Between 1959 and 1984, medical care rose the most, up 396.7%, while apparel rose the least, up 126.9%, against 257.0% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1959
spending costs in 1984, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1959 →
All items (CPI-U)
5.22%
$357
Medical care
6.62%
$497
Energy
6.30%
$461
Transportation
5.11%
$348
Food
5.11%
$347
Core (all items less food & energy)
5.09%
$346
Apparel
3.33%
$227
Not shown because the BLS began these indexes after 1959: housing (1967–), recreation (1993–), education & communication (1993–).
Decade by decade: 1959 to 1984
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 1959–1984 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
1980–1984
5.97%
26.1%
$357
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1959
$100 from 1959 had already become $139 by
1971, on its way to $357 in 1984; 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 1984, prices rose 4.3% and $100 from 1959 had the buying
power of $357; the year's average CPI of 103.9 is the level
behind every 1984 figure on this page.
1984 was the year the recovery became a boom. Real GDP grew 7.2%, the
fastest calendar-year growth since 1951, as the tax cuts passed in 1981
combined with falling interest rates and rebuilding consumer confidence.
Unemployment, which had topped 10.8% just two years earlier, fell below
7.5%. Inflation ticked up to 4.3% from 3.2% the year before, but nothing
close to a return of the 1970s wage-price spiral: the Federal Reserve under
Paul Volcker kept policy tight enough to hold the line while growth ran hot.
The strength of the expansion, branded “Morning in America” in President
Reagan’s reelection campaign, carried him to a 49-state landslide over
Walter Mondale that November, at the time the widest electoral-vote margin
in U.S. history. For households, the numbers behind the slogan were
concrete: median income rose to about $22,400, and a gallon of gas cost
$1.13, roughly what it had cost three years earlier even as wages kept
climbing. The contrast with 1980, when 13.5% inflation and interest rates
near 20% had defined the economy, could not have been sharper.
MLA: “Inflation from 1959 to 1984: $100 is worth $357 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1959-to-1984/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1959 to 1984. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1959-to-1984/