$100 in 1959 is worth $449 in 1990,
because prices increased 349.1% over that period, an average of
4.97% a year.
$100 in 1959 has
the same buying power as
$449
in 1990
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
349.1%
Average inflation rate
4.97% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$449
Price difference ($100 base)
$349
CPI in 1959
29.1
CPI in 1990
130.7
Inflation in 1959
0.69%
Inflation in 1990
5.40%
$100 in 1959 → 1990
$449
$100 in 1990 → 1959
$22.26
What happened to prices between 1959 and 1990
Between 1959 and 1990, the Consumer Price Index went from 29.1 to 130.7.
Cumulatively, prices increased 349.1%, which works out to an average of
4.97% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1959 bought what
$0.22 buys in 1990: the 1959 dollar
lost 77.7% of its purchasing power over
these 31 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 1990 at the same ratio, 4.49: $1,000 becomes
$4,491, and $10,000 becomes $44,914.
Amount in 1959
Value in 1990
$1.00
$4.49
$5.00
$22.46
$10.00
$44.91
$20.00
$89.83
$50.00
$225
$100
$449
$500
$2,246
$1,000
$4,491
$5,000
$22,457
$10,000
$44,914
$100,000
$449,141
$1,000,000
$4,491,409
Inflation by spending category, 1959–1990
Between 1959 and 1990, medical care rose the most, up 657.2%, while apparel rose the least, up 175.8%, against 349.1% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1959
spending costs in 1990, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1959 →
All items (CPI-U)
4.97%
$449
Medical care
6.75%
$757
Energy
5.09%
$466
Core (all items less food & energy)
4.96%
$449
Food
4.94%
$446
Transportation
4.61%
$404
Apparel
3.33%
$276
Not shown because the BLS began these indexes after 1959: housing (1967–), recreation (1993–), education & communication (1993–).
Decade by decade: 1959 to 1990
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 1959–1990 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
1980–1990
4.72%
58.6%
$449
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1959
$100 from 1959 had already become $185 by
1975, on its way to $449 in 1990; 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.
Long periods are sampled every 2 years; the calculator above covers any pair of years.
The destination year: 1990
In 1990, prices rose 5.4% and $100 from 1959 had the buying
power of $449; the year's average CPI of 130.7 is the level
behind every 1990 figure on this page.
In 1990, the median U.S. household earned about $29,900, gas averaged $1.15 a
gallon, and mailing a letter cost a quarter. Inflation ran hot at 5.4% for the
year, its highest rate since 1982, pushed up by an oil shock after Iraq’s
invasion of Kuwait, and the economy tipped into recession that summer. It was
the last gasp of elevated inflation before the long calm of the 1990s.
MLA: “Inflation from 1959 to 1990: $100 is worth $449 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1959-to-1990/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1959 to 1990. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1959-to-1990/