$100 in 1959 is worth $573 in 1999,
because prices increased 472.5% over that period, an average of
4.46% a year.
$100 in 1959 has
the same buying power as
$573
in 1999
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
472.5%
Average inflation rate
4.46% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$573
Price difference ($100 base)
$473
CPI in 1959
29.1
CPI in 1999
166.6
Inflation in 1959
0.69%
Inflation in 1999
2.21%
$100 in 1959 → 1999
$573
$100 in 1999 → 1959
$17.47
What happened to prices between 1959 and 1999
Between 1959 and 1999, the Consumer Price Index went from 29.1 to 166.6.
Cumulatively, prices increased 472.5%, which works out to an average of
4.46% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1959 bought what
$0.17 buys in 1999: the 1959 dollar
lost 82.5% of its purchasing power over
these 40 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 1999 at the same ratio, 5.73: $1,000 becomes
$5,725, and $10,000 becomes $57,251.
Amount in 1959
Value in 1999
$1.00
$5.73
$5.00
$28.63
$10.00
$57.25
$20.00
$115
$50.00
$286
$100
$573
$500
$2,863
$1,000
$5,725
$5,000
$28,625
$10,000
$57,251
$100,000
$572,509
$1,000,000
$5,725,086
Inflation by spending category, 1959–1999
Between 1959 and 1999, medical care rose the most, up 1065.6%, while apparel rose the least, up 191.8%, against 472.5% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1959
spending costs in 1999, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1959 →
All items (CPI-U)
4.46%
$573
Medical care
6.33%
$1,166
Core (all items less food & energy)
4.52%
$586
Food
4.37%
$553
Energy
4.04%
$487
Transportation
4.02%
$485
Apparel
2.71%
$292
Not shown because the BLS began these indexes after 1959: housing (1967–), recreation (1993–), education & communication (1993–).
Decade by decade: 1959 to 1999
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 1959–1999 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
1990–1999
2.73%
27.5%
$573
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1959
$100 from 1959 had already become $249 by
1979, on its way to $573 in 1999; 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: 1999
In 1999, prices rose 2.2% and $100 from 1959 had the buying
power of $573; the year's average CPI of 166.6 is the level
behind every 1999 figure on this page.
The median household earned about $40,700 in 1999, gas averaged $1.17 a gallon, and a new home
cost roughly $161,000. Inflation ran at 2.2% for the year, ticking back up from 1998’s decade low
as oil prices recovered from their collapse. The decade closed with two changes to the financial
system that would shape the one after it: on January 1, the euro launched as an accounting
currency across 11 European countries, trading alongside national currencies like the French
franc and German mark ahead of physical cash in 2002, and in November, Congress passed the
Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act, tearing down the Depression-era wall between commercial banks, investment
banks, and insurers. Stock markets, meanwhile, were absorbed in a boom of their own: the Nasdaq
surged through the year on soaring internet-stock valuations, and the Federal Reserve raised
interest rates three times in the second half of 1999 partly to cool the exuberance, even as it
pumped extra liquidity into the banking system to guard against any disruption from the Y2K
rollover. A first-class stamp cost 33 cents. Inflation had spent the decade falling from 1990’s
5.4% peak to averages closer to 2-3%, and 1999 closed it out almost exactly where the 1990s as a
whole had settled.
MLA: “Inflation from 1959 to 1999: $100 is worth $573 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1959-to-1999/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1959 to 1999. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1959-to-1999/