$100 in 1959 is worth $407 in 1988,
because prices increased 306.5% over that period, an average of
4.96% a year.
$100 in 1959 has
the same buying power as
$407
in 1988
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
306.5%
Average inflation rate
4.96% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$407
Price difference ($100 base)
$307
CPI in 1959
29.1
CPI in 1988
118.3
Inflation in 1959
0.69%
Inflation in 1988
4.14%
$100 in 1959 → 1988
$407
$100 in 1988 → 1959
$24.60
What happened to prices between 1959 and 1988
Between 1959 and 1988, the Consumer Price Index went from 29.1 to 118.3.
Cumulatively, prices increased 306.5%, which works out to an average of
4.96% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1959 bought what
$0.25 buys in 1988: the 1959 dollar
lost 75.4% of its purchasing power over
these 29 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 1988 at the same ratio, 4.07: $1,000 becomes
$4,065, and $10,000 becomes $40,653.
Amount in 1959
Value in 1988
$1.00
$4.07
$5.00
$20.33
$10.00
$40.65
$20.00
$81.31
$50.00
$203
$100
$407
$500
$2,033
$1,000
$4,065
$5,000
$20,326
$10,000
$40,653
$100,000
$406,529
$1,000,000
$4,065,292
Inflation by spending category, 1959–1988
Between 1959 and 1988, medical care rose the most, up 544.7%, while apparel rose the least, up 156.4%, against 306.5% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1959
spending costs in 1988, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1959 →
All items (CPI-U)
4.96%
$407
Medical care
6.64%
$645
Core (all items less food & energy)
4.97%
$409
Energy
4.97%
$408
Food
4.88%
$398
Transportation
4.56%
$365
Apparel
3.30%
$256
Not shown because the BLS began these indexes after 1959: housing (1967–), recreation (1993–), education & communication (1993–).
Decade by decade: 1959 to 1988
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 1959–1988 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
1980–1988
4.62%
43.6%
$407
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1959
$100 from 1959 had already become $153 by
1973, on its way to $407 in 1988; 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 1988, prices rose 4.1% and $100 from 1959 had the buying
power of $407; the year's average CPI of 118.3 is the level
behind every 1988 figure on this page.
By 1988, the economic expansion that began in the ashes of the 1981-82
recession was in its sixth year, and the Federal Reserve was watching for
signs it had run too long. Inflation rose to 4.1%, up from 3.6% the year
before, while unemployment fell to its lowest level since 1974. Alan
Greenspan’s Fed responded by raising the federal funds rate through the
year, from about 6.5% to 8.5%, trying to cool demand before prices
accelerated the way they had in the 1970s. Households still felt the
difference between this expansion and the last one: gas held near 90 cents
a gallon, almost exactly its 1987 price, and median household income rose
to roughly $27,200. The one price that moved was postage, which rose from
22 to 25 cents in April, the fourth increase of the decade but a far
gentler pace than the string of increases in the late 1970s and early
1980s. In November, Vice President George H.W. Bush won the presidency on
the strength of the expansion, promising in his nomination speech to hold
the line on taxes. Both the boom and that pledge would run into trouble
within two years, as the Fed’s rate increases helped tip the economy toward
the 1990-91 recession.
MLA: “Inflation from 1959 to 1988: $100 is worth $407 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1959-to-1988/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1959 to 1988. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1959-to-1988/