$100 in 1959 is worth $552 in 1997,
because prices increased 451.5% over that period, an average of
4.60% a year.
$100 in 1959 has
the same buying power as
$552
in 1997
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
451.5%
Average inflation rate
4.60% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$552
Price difference ($100 base)
$452
CPI in 1959
29.1
CPI in 1997
160.5
Inflation in 1959
0.69%
Inflation in 1997
2.29%
$100 in 1959 → 1997
$552
$100 in 1997 → 1959
$18.13
What happened to prices between 1959 and 1997
Between 1959 and 1997, the Consumer Price Index went from 29.1 to 160.5.
Cumulatively, prices increased 451.5%, which works out to an average of
4.60% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1959 bought what
$0.18 buys in 1997: the 1959 dollar
lost 81.9% of its purchasing power over
these 38 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 1997 at the same ratio, 5.52: $1,000 becomes
$5,515, and $10,000 becomes $55,155.
Amount in 1959
Value in 1997
$1.00
$5.52
$5.00
$27.58
$10.00
$55.15
$20.00
$110
$50.00
$276
$100
$552
$500
$2,758
$1,000
$5,515
$5,000
$27,577
$10,000
$55,155
$100,000
$551,546
$1,000,000
$5,515,464
Inflation by spending category, 1959–1997
Between 1959 and 1997, medical care rose the most, up 991.2%, while apparel rose the least, up 195.3%, against 451.5% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1959
spending costs in 1997, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1959 →
All items (CPI-U)
4.60%
$552
Medical care
6.49%
$1,091
Core (all items less food & energy)
4.64%
$561
Food
4.48%
$530
Energy
4.38%
$509
Transportation
4.24%
$484
Apparel
2.89%
$295
Not shown because the BLS began these indexes after 1959: housing (1967–), recreation (1993–), education & communication (1993–).
Decade by decade: 1959 to 1997
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 1959–1997 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
1990–1997
2.98%
22.8%
$552
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1959
$100 from 1959 had already become $208 by
1977, on its way to $552 in 1997; 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: 1997
In 1997, prices rose 2.3% and $100 from 1959 had the buying
power of $552; the year's average CPI of 160.5 is the level
behind every 1997 figure on this page.
The median household earned about $37,000 in 1997, gas averaged $1.23 a gallon, and a new home
cost roughly $146,000. Inflation ran at 2.3% for the year, its lowest reading since the
mid-1980s, as a strong dollar and falling import prices helped keep costs in check at home even
as trouble built abroad. In July, Thailand devalued the baht, and the currency collapse that
followed spread within months to Indonesia, South Korea, and other Southeast Asian economies,
forcing IMF bailouts and years of recession across the region, though the crisis had little
immediate effect on U.S. prices. At home, Washington had a calmer year: in August, President
Clinton and Congress agreed on the Balanced Budget Act and the Taxpayer Relief Act, which cut
capital gains tax rates, created the Roth IRA, and set the federal budget on a path to its first
surplus in nearly three decades. In September, the federal minimum wage completed a two-step
rise to $5.15 an hour, where it would stay for a decade. Low inflation, a firming budget picture,
and a crisis unfolding an ocean away made 1997 a year the U.S. economy looked stronger than much
of the rest of the world’s.
MLA: “Inflation from 1959 to 1997: $100 is worth $552 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1959-to-1997/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1959 to 1997. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1959-to-1997/