$100 in 1959 is worth $377 in 1986,
because prices increased 276.6% over that period, an average of
5.03% a year.
$100 in 1959 has
the same buying power as
$377
in 1986
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
276.6%
Average inflation rate
5.03% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$377
Price difference ($100 base)
$277
CPI in 1959
29.1
CPI in 1986
109.6
Inflation in 1959
0.69%
Inflation in 1986
1.86%
$100 in 1959 → 1986
$377
$100 in 1986 → 1959
$26.55
What happened to prices between 1959 and 1986
Between 1959 and 1986, the Consumer Price Index went from 29.1 to 109.6.
Cumulatively, prices increased 276.6%, which works out to an average of
5.03% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1959 bought what
$0.27 buys in 1986: the 1959 dollar
lost 73.4% of its purchasing power over
these 27 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 1986 at the same ratio, 3.77: $1,000 becomes
$3,766, and $10,000 becomes $37,663.
Amount in 1959
Value in 1986
$1.00
$3.77
$5.00
$18.83
$10.00
$37.66
$20.00
$75.33
$50.00
$188
$100
$377
$500
$1,883
$1,000
$3,766
$5,000
$18,832
$10,000
$37,663
$100,000
$376,632
$1,000,000
$3,766,323
Inflation by spending category, 1959–1986
Between 1959 and 1986, medical care rose the most, up 467.4%, while apparel rose the least, up 135.3%, against 276.6% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1959
spending costs in 1986, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1959 →
All items (CPI-U)
5.03%
$377
Medical care
6.64%
$567
Energy
5.30%
$403
Core (all items less food & energy)
5.03%
$376
Food
4.93%
$367
Transportation
4.67%
$343
Apparel
3.22%
$235
Not shown because the BLS began these indexes after 1959: housing (1967–), recreation (1993–), education & communication (1993–).
Decade by decade: 1959 to 1986
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 1959–1986 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
1980–1986
4.87%
33.0%
$377
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1959
$100 from 1959 had already become $144 by
1972, on its way to $377 in 1986; 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 1986, prices rose 1.9% and $100 from 1959 had the buying
power of $377; the year's average CPI of 109.6 is the level
behind every 1986 figure on this page.
1986 delivered the decade’s biggest one-year drop in inflation, and it came
almost entirely from a single source: oil. Saudi Arabia abandoned its policy
of restraining output to prop up prices, and world crude collapsed from
about $27 a barrel to under $10 by midyear. Gasoline, which had averaged
$1.12 a gallon in 1985, fell to 86 cents. With energy costs plunging,
headline CPI inflation for the year came in at just 1.9%, the lowest annual
rate since 1965 and a striking bookend to 1980’s 13.5% peak. The relief was
uneven: prices for most goods and services outside energy kept rising at a
moderate pace, so households that didn’t drive much or heat with oil felt
less of the difference. In October, Congress passed the Tax Reform Act of
1986, a bipartisan overhaul that cut the top individual income tax rate from
50% to 28% while closing many deductions and shelters, the broadest rewrite
of the federal tax code since World War II. Between cheap gas and falling
interest rates, 1986 read like proof that the inflationary 1970s were a
closed chapter, six years after the U.S. economy had felt anything but
calm.
MLA: “Inflation from 1959 to 1986: $100 is worth $377 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1959-to-1986/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1959 to 1986. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1959-to-1986/