$100 in 1959 is worth $539 in 1996,
because prices increased 439.2% over that period, an average of
4.66% a year.
$100 in 1959 has
the same buying power as
$539
in 1996
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
439.2%
Average inflation rate
4.66% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$539
Price difference ($100 base)
$439
CPI in 1959
29.1
CPI in 1996
156.9
Inflation in 1959
0.69%
Inflation in 1996
2.95%
$100 in 1959 → 1996
$539
$100 in 1996 → 1959
$18.55
What happened to prices between 1959 and 1996
Between 1959 and 1996, the Consumer Price Index went from 29.1 to 156.9.
Cumulatively, prices increased 439.2%, which works out to an average of
4.66% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1959 bought what
$0.19 buys in 1996: the 1959 dollar
lost 81.5% of its purchasing power over
these 37 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 1996 at the same ratio, 5.39: $1,000 becomes
$5,392, and $10,000 becomes $53,918.
Amount in 1959
Value in 1996
$1.00
$5.39
$5.00
$26.96
$10.00
$53.92
$20.00
$108
$50.00
$270
$100
$539
$500
$2,696
$1,000
$5,392
$5,000
$26,959
$10,000
$53,918
$100,000
$539,175
$1,000,000
$5,391,753
Inflation by spending category, 1959–1996
Between 1959 and 1996, medical care rose the most, up 961.4%, while apparel rose the least, up 192.7%, against 439.2% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1959
spending costs in 1996, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1959 →
All items (CPI-U)
4.66%
$539
Medical care
6.59%
$1,061
Core (all items less food & energy)
4.71%
$548
Food
4.54%
$516
Energy
4.46%
$503
Transportation
4.33%
$480
Apparel
2.94%
$293
Not shown because the BLS began these indexes after 1959: housing (1967–), recreation (1993–), education & communication (1993–).
Decade by decade: 1959 to 1996
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 1959–1996 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
1990–1996
3.09%
20.0%
$539
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1959
$100 from 1959 had already become $208 by
1977, on its way to $539 in 1996; 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: 1996
In 1996, prices rose 3.0% and $100 from 1959 had the buying
power of $539; the year's average CPI of 156.9 is the level
behind every 1996 figure on this page.
The median household earned about $35,500 in 1996, gas averaged $1.23 a gallon, up noticeably
from the mid-decade lull, and a new home cost roughly $140,000. Inflation ran at 3.0% for the
year, ticking back up from 1995 as energy prices firmed. Washington passed two of the decade’s
more consequential laws that year: in February, the Telecommunications Act rewrote the rules for
phone, cable, and broadcast media for the first time since 1934, opening local markets to
competition and easing ownership limits; in August, a welfare overhaul ended the federal
guarantee of cash assistance, replacing it with block grants to states and time limits on
benefits. In October, the federal minimum wage rose to $4.75 an hour, its first increase in five
years and the opening step of a two-part law that would take it to $5.15 the following
September. Two sweeping new laws and a minimum wage finally on the move again made 1996 a year
that changed more about how the economy was governed than about how fast prices moved.
MLA: “Inflation from 1959 to 1996: $100 is worth $539 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1959-to-1996/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1959 to 1996. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1959-to-1996/