$100 in 1959 is worth $497 in 1993,
because prices increased 396.6% over that period, an average of
4.83% a year.
$100 in 1959 has
the same buying power as
$497
in 1993
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
396.6%
Average inflation rate
4.83% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$497
Price difference ($100 base)
$397
CPI in 1959
29.1
CPI in 1993
144.5
Inflation in 1959
0.69%
Inflation in 1993
2.99%
$100 in 1959 → 1993
$497
$100 in 1993 → 1959
$20.14
What happened to prices between 1959 and 1993
Between 1959 and 1993, the Consumer Price Index went from 29.1 to 144.5.
Cumulatively, prices increased 396.6%, which works out to an average of
4.83% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1959 bought what
$0.20 buys in 1993: the 1959 dollar
lost 79.9% of its purchasing power over
these 34 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 1993 at the same ratio, 4.97: $1,000 becomes
$4,966, and $10,000 becomes $49,656.
Amount in 1959
Value in 1993
$1.00
$4.97
$5.00
$24.83
$10.00
$49.66
$20.00
$99.31
$50.00
$248
$100
$497
$500
$2,483
$1,000
$4,966
$5,000
$24,828
$10,000
$49,656
$100,000
$496,564
$1,000,000
$4,965,636
Inflation by spending category, 1959–1993
Between 1959 and 1993, medical care rose the most, up 836.7%, while apparel rose the least, up 197.1%, against 396.6% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1959
spending costs in 1993, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1959 →
All items (CPI-U)
4.83%
$497
Medical care
6.80%
$937
Core (all items less food & energy)
4.87%
$504
Energy
4.69%
$476
Food
4.69%
$474
Transportation
4.44%
$438
Apparel
3.25%
$297
Not shown because the BLS began these indexes after 1959: housing (1967–), recreation (1993–), education & communication (1993–).
Decade by decade: 1959 to 1993
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 1959–1993 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
1990–1993
3.40%
10.6%
$497
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1959
$100 from 1959 had already become $185 by
1975, on its way to $497 in 1993; 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: 1993
In 1993, prices rose 3.0% and $100 from 1959 had the buying
power of $497; the year's average CPI of 144.5 is the level
behind every 1993 figure on this page.
By 1993, the median household earned about $31,200, gas averaged $1.11 a gallon, and a new home
cost roughly $126,500. Inflation ran at 3.0% for the year, holding close to where it had settled
the year before as the recovery slowly gathered strength. Washington spent much of the year on
two pieces of unfinished business from the recession: a deficit-reduction package, the Omnibus
Budget Reconciliation Act, that raised the top income tax rate to 39.6% to start narrowing a
budget gap left over from the 1980s, and a trade deal, the North American Free Trade Agreement,
that President Clinton signed into law in December after a contentious fight in Congress. NAFTA
phased out most tariffs between the U.S., Mexico, and Canada and took effect the following
January. The year’s other defining event had nothing to do with the economy: in February, a bomb
exploded in the World Trade Center’s parking garage, killing six people and injuring more than a
thousand. By year’s end, the pieces of the decade’s later economic story, freer trade, a
shrinking deficit, and inflation holding near 3%, were already in place.
MLA: “Inflation from 1959 to 1993: $100 is worth $497 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1959-to-1993/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1959 to 1993. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1959-to-1993/