$100 in 1959 is worth $482 in 1992,
because prices increased 382.1% over that period, an average of
4.88% a year.
$100 in 1959 has
the same buying power as
$482
in 1992
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
382.1%
Average inflation rate
4.88% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$482
Price difference ($100 base)
$382
CPI in 1959
29.1
CPI in 1992
140.3
Inflation in 1959
0.69%
Inflation in 1992
3.01%
$100 in 1959 → 1992
$482
$100 in 1992 → 1959
$20.74
What happened to prices between 1959 and 1992
Between 1959 and 1992, the Consumer Price Index went from 29.1 to 140.3.
Cumulatively, prices increased 382.1%, which works out to an average of
4.88% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1959 bought what
$0.21 buys in 1992: the 1959 dollar
lost 79.3% of its purchasing power over
these 33 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 1992 at the same ratio, 4.82: $1,000 becomes
$4,821, and $10,000 becomes $48,213.
Amount in 1959
Value in 1992
$1.00
$4.82
$5.00
$24.11
$10.00
$48.21
$20.00
$96.43
$50.00
$241
$100
$482
$500
$2,411
$1,000
$4,821
$5,000
$24,107
$10,000
$48,213
$100,000
$482,131
$1,000,000
$4,821,306
Inflation by spending category, 1959–1992
Between 1959 and 1992, medical care rose the most, up 784.2%, while apparel rose the least, up 193.1%, against 382.1% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1959
spending costs in 1992, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1959 →
All items (CPI-U)
4.88%
$482
Medical care
6.83%
$884
Core (all items less food & energy)
4.92%
$488
Energy
4.80%
$470
Food
4.76%
$464
Transportation
4.48%
$424
Apparel
3.31%
$293
Not shown because the BLS began these indexes after 1959: housing (1967–), recreation (1993–), education & communication (1993–).
Decade by decade: 1959 to 1992
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 1959–1992 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
1990–1992
3.61%
7.3%
$482
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1959
$100 from 1959 had already become $185 by
1975, on its way to $482 in 1992; 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: 1992
In 1992, prices rose 3.0% and $100 from 1959 had the buying
power of $482; the year's average CPI of 140.3 is the level
behind every 1992 figure on this page.
1992 was the year the recovery finally showed up in the numbers, if not yet in hiring. The
median household earned about $30,600, gas averaged $1.13 a gallon, and a new home cost roughly
$121,500. Inflation ran at 3.0% for the year, its calmest reading since the mid-1980s, as energy
prices stayed well below their 1990 peak and a slack labor market kept a lid on wages and prices
alike. The Federal Reserve kept cutting its policy rate through the year, reaching about 3% by
September, the lowest in decades, trying to jump-start hiring more than a year after the 1990-91
recession officially ended. The sluggish job market became the defining issue of the November
election, and Bill Clinton unseated incumbent George H.W. Bush, whose approval ratings had
fallen sharply from their post-Gulf War highs. In August, Hurricane Andrew tore through South
Florida, the costliest U.S. hurricane on record at the time, causing tens of billions of dollars
in damage and reshaping how insurers priced catastrophe risk for years afterward. Falling rates,
a costly hurricane, and an election fought over jobs defined a recovery that showed up in the
data well before it showed up in most paychecks.
MLA: “Inflation from 1959 to 1992: $100 is worth $482 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1959-to-1992/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1959 to 1992. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1959-to-1992/