$100 in 1959 is worth $468 in 1991,
because prices increased 368.0% over that period, an average of
4.94% a year.
$100 in 1959 has
the same buying power as
$468
in 1991
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
368.0%
Average inflation rate
4.94% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$468
Price difference ($100 base)
$368
CPI in 1959
29.1
CPI in 1991
136.2
Inflation in 1959
0.69%
Inflation in 1991
4.21%
$100 in 1959 → 1991
$468
$100 in 1991 → 1959
$21.37
What happened to prices between 1959 and 1991
Between 1959 and 1991, the Consumer Price Index went from 29.1 to 136.2.
Cumulatively, prices increased 368.0%, which works out to an average of
4.94% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1959 bought what
$0.21 buys in 1991: the 1959 dollar
lost 78.6% of its purchasing power over
these 32 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 1991 at the same ratio, 4.68: $1,000 becomes
$4,680, and $10,000 becomes $46,804.
Amount in 1959
Value in 1991
$1.00
$4.68
$5.00
$23.40
$10.00
$46.80
$20.00
$93.61
$50.00
$234
$100
$468
$500
$2,340
$1,000
$4,680
$5,000
$23,402
$10,000
$46,804
$100,000
$468,041
$1,000,000
$4,680,412
Inflation by spending category, 1959–1991
Between 1959 and 1991, medical care rose the most, up 723.3%, while apparel rose the least, up 186.0%, against 368.0% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1959
spending costs in 1991, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1959 →
All items (CPI-U)
4.94%
$468
Medical care
6.81%
$823
Core (all items less food & energy)
4.96%
$471
Energy
4.94%
$468
Food
4.88%
$459
Transportation
4.55%
$415
Apparel
3.34%
$286
Not shown because the BLS began these indexes after 1959: housing (1967–), recreation (1993–), education & communication (1993–).
Decade by decade: 1959 to 1991
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 1959–1991 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
1990–1991
4.21%
4.2%
$468
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1959
$100 from 1959 had already become $185 by
1975, on its way to $468 in 1991; 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: 1991
In 1991, prices rose 4.2% and $100 from 1959 had the buying
power of $468; the year's average CPI of 136.2 is the level
behind every 1991 figure on this page.
1991 opened in recession and closed in a slow, uneven recovery. The median household earned
about $30,100 for the year, gas averaged $1.14 a gallon, and a new home cost roughly $120,000.
Inflation ran at 4.2% for the year, down from 1990’s oil-driven spike, as the Gulf War ended in
February and crude oil retreated from its autumn highs. The recession itself, dated by the
National Bureau of Economic Research from July 1990 to March 1991, was technically over by
spring, but hiring stayed weak well into 1992, the stretch economists came to call the jobless
recovery. The Federal Reserve kept cutting interest rates through the year to support growth,
reversing the tightening campaign it had run through the late 1980s. In April the federal
minimum wage rose to $4.25 an hour, the second step of an increase from the $3.35 rate that had
held since 1981. The Postal Service had already raised the cost of a first-class stamp to 29
cents that February. It was the first full year of the decade without an oil shock driving
prices, even if the job market took longer to follow.
MLA: “Inflation from 1959 to 1991: $100 is worth $468 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1959-to-1991/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1959 to 1991. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1959-to-1991/