$100 in 1959 is worth $560 in 1998,
because prices increased 460.1% over that period, an average of
4.52% a year.
$100 in 1959 has
the same buying power as
$560
in 1998
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
460.1%
Average inflation rate
4.52% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$560
Price difference ($100 base)
$460
CPI in 1959
29.1
CPI in 1998
163
Inflation in 1959
0.69%
Inflation in 1998
1.56%
$100 in 1959 → 1998
$560
$100 in 1998 → 1959
$17.85
What happened to prices between 1959 and 1998
Between 1959 and 1998, the Consumer Price Index went from 29.1 to 163.
Cumulatively, prices increased 460.1%, which works out to an average of
4.52% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1959 bought what
$0.18 buys in 1998: the 1959 dollar
lost 82.1% of its purchasing power over
these 39 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 1998 at the same ratio, 5.60: $1,000 becomes
$5,601, and $10,000 becomes $56,014.
Amount in 1959
Value in 1998
$1.00
$5.60
$5.00
$28.01
$10.00
$56.01
$20.00
$112
$50.00
$280
$100
$560
$500
$2,801
$1,000
$5,601
$5,000
$28,007
$10,000
$56,014
$100,000
$560,137
$1,000,000
$5,601,375
Inflation by spending category, 1959–1998
Between 1959 and 1998, medical care rose the most, up 1026.0%, while apparel rose the least, up 195.6%, against 460.1% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1959
spending costs in 1998, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1959 →
All items (CPI-U)
4.52%
$560
Medical care
6.41%
$1,126
Core (all items less food & energy)
4.58%
$574
Food
4.42%
$541
Transportation
4.08%
$475
Energy
4.05%
$470
Apparel
2.82%
$296
Not shown because the BLS began these indexes after 1959: housing (1967–), recreation (1993–), education & communication (1993–).
Decade by decade: 1959 to 1998
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 1959–1998 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
1990–1998
2.80%
24.7%
$560
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1959
$100 from 1959 had already become $249 by
1979, on its way to $560 in 1998; 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: 1998
In 1998, prices rose 1.6% and $100 from 1959 had the buying
power of $560; the year's average CPI of 163 is the level
behind every 1998 figure on this page.
The median household earned about $38,900 in 1998, gas averaged just $1.06 a gallon, its
cheapest of the decade, and a new home cost roughly $152,500. Inflation ran at 1.6% for the
year, the lowest of the 1990s, as a glut of crude oil, worsened by weak demand from Asia’s
slowdown, pushed prices below $11 a barrel by December and pulled pump prices down with them.
The calm at home came alongside real turmoil abroad: in August, Russia devalued the ruble and
defaulted on its domestic debt, rattling markets already unsettled by the Asian financial
crisis, and in September the hedge fund Long-Term Capital Management collapsed after its highly
leveraged bets went bad, prompting the Federal Reserve to organize a private-sector bailout by
more than a dozen banks to prevent a disorderly unwinding of its roughly $100 billion in
positions. The Fed also cut interest rates three times that fall, in September, October, and
November, an insurance policy against the global financial turmoil spreading to the U.S.
economy. Cheap oil and a well-timed set of rate cuts left 1998 as a year the U.S. economy
absorbed two foreign financial crises without much of a dent at home.
MLA: “Inflation from 1959 to 1998: $100 is worth $560 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1959-to-1998/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1959 to 1998. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1959-to-1998/