$100 in 1959 is worth $618 in 2002,
because prices increased 518.2% over that period, an average of
4.33% a year.
$100 in 1959 has
the same buying power as
$618
in 2002
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
518.2%
Average inflation rate
4.33% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$618
Price difference ($100 base)
$518
CPI in 1959
29.1
CPI in 2002
179.9
Inflation in 1959
0.69%
Inflation in 2002
1.58%
$100 in 1959 → 2002
$618
$100 in 2002 → 1959
$16.18
What happened to prices between 1959 and 2002
Between 1959 and 2002, the Consumer Price Index went from 29.1 to 179.9.
Cumulatively, prices increased 518.2%, which works out to an average of
4.33% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1959 bought what
$0.16 buys in 2002: the 1959 dollar
lost 83.8% of its purchasing power over
these 43 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 2002 at the same ratio, 6.18: $1,000 becomes
$6,182, and $10,000 becomes $61,821.
Amount in 1959
Value in 2002
$1.00
$6.18
$5.00
$30.91
$10.00
$61.82
$20.00
$124
$50.00
$309
$100
$618
$500
$3,091
$1,000
$6,182
$5,000
$30,911
$10,000
$61,821
$100,000
$618,213
$1,000,000
$6,182,131
Inflation by spending category, 1959–2002
Between 1959 and 2002, medical care rose the most, up 1228.4%, while apparel rose the least, up 175.6%, against 518.2% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1959
spending costs in 2002, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1959 →
All items (CPI-U)
4.33%
$618
Medical care
6.20%
$1,328
Core (all items less food & energy)
4.38%
$631
Food
4.23%
$593
Energy
4.07%
$556
Transportation
3.88%
$513
Apparel
2.39%
$276
Not shown because the BLS began these indexes after 1959: housing (1967–), recreation (1993–), education & communication (1993–).
Decade by decade: 1959 to 2002
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 1959–2002 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
2000–2002
2.21%
4.5%
$618
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1959
$100 from 1959 had already become $312 by
1981, on its way to $618 in 2002; 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: 2002
In 2002, prices rose 1.6% and $100 from 1959 had the buying
power of $618; the year's average CPI of 179.9 is the level
behind every 2002 figure on this page.
The CPI rose 1.6% in 2002, the lowest annual rate of the decade so far, with gasoline down to an
average of $1.36 a gallon and slack in the labor market keeping wage pressure low. The median
household earned about $42,400, and a new home cost roughly $187,600, an increase of about 7%
from the year before as low mortgage rates began to lift housing. The Federal Reserve cut its
policy rate to 1.25% in November. Stocks were moving the other way: after the Enron and WorldCom
scandals, the S&P 500 hit its bear-market low on October 9, about 49% below its March 2000
peak, and Congress passed the Sarbanes-Oxley Act in July to tighten corporate accounting rules.
On January 1, euro banknotes and coins replaced national currencies in 12 European countries. A
first-class stamp rose to 37 cents in June, and the federal minimum wage stayed at $5.15.
MLA: “Inflation from 1959 to 2002: $100 is worth $618 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1959-to-2002/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1959 to 2002. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1959-to-2002/