$100 in 1959 is worth $609 in 2001,
because prices increased 508.6% over that period, an average of
4.39% a year.
$100 in 1959 has
the same buying power as
$609
in 2001
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
508.6%
Average inflation rate
4.39% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$609
Price difference ($100 base)
$509
CPI in 1959
29.1
CPI in 2001
177.1
Inflation in 1959
0.69%
Inflation in 2001
2.85%
$100 in 1959 → 2001
$609
$100 in 2001 → 1959
$16.43
What happened to prices between 1959 and 2001
Between 1959 and 2001, the Consumer Price Index went from 29.1 to 177.1.
Cumulatively, prices increased 508.6%, which works out to an average of
4.39% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1959 bought what
$0.16 buys in 2001: the 1959 dollar
lost 83.6% of its purchasing power over
these 42 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 2001 at the same ratio, 6.09: $1,000 becomes
$6,086, and $10,000 becomes $60,859.
Amount in 1959
Value in 2001
$1.00
$6.09
$5.00
$30.43
$10.00
$60.86
$20.00
$122
$50.00
$304
$100
$609
$500
$3,043
$1,000
$6,086
$5,000
$30,430
$10,000
$60,859
$100,000
$608,591
$1,000,000
$6,085,911
Inflation by spending category, 1959–2001
Between 1959 and 2001, medical care rose the most, up 1168.8%, while apparel rose the least, up 182.9%, against 508.6% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1959
spending costs in 2001, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1959 →
All items (CPI-U)
4.39%
$609
Medical care
6.24%
$1,269
Core (all items less food & energy)
4.42%
$616
Energy
4.32%
$590
Food
4.29%
$583
Transportation
3.99%
$518
Apparel
2.51%
$283
Not shown because the BLS began these indexes after 1959: housing (1967–), recreation (1993–), education & communication (1993–).
Decade by decade: 1959 to 2001
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 1959–2001 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
1990–2000
2.80%
31.8%
$592
2000–2001
2.85%
2.8%
$609
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1959
$100 from 1959 had already become $249 by
1979, on its way to $609 in 2001; 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: 2001
In 2001, prices rose 2.8% and $100 from 1959 had the buying
power of $609; the year's average CPI of 177.1 is the level
behind every 2001 figure on this page.
Inflation fell to 2.8% in 2001 from 3.4% the year before, as a recession that began in March
cut demand and gasoline slid to an average of $1.46 a gallon. The median household earned about
$42,200, roughly flat from 2000, and a new home cost about $175,200. The Federal Reserve cut its
policy rate 11 times over the year, from 6.5% to 1.75%, the lowest since 1961. After the
September 11 attacks, U.S. stock markets closed for four trading days, and air travel dropped
sharply until the following year. Congress had already passed a $1.35 trillion tax cut in June,
which included rebate checks of up to $600. The National Bureau of Economic Research dates the
recession’s end at November, but unemployment kept rising into 2003. A first-class stamp went to
34 cents in January, and the federal minimum wage stayed at $5.15. The Fed’s cuts were the
first step in a long period of very cheap borrowing that would fuel the housing boom.
MLA: “Inflation from 1959 to 2001: $100 is worth $609 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1959-to-2001/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1959 to 2001. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1959-to-2001/