$100 in 1959 is worth $632 in 2003,
because prices increased 532.3% over that period, an average of
4.28% a year.
$100 in 1959 has
the same buying power as
$632
in 2003
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
532.3%
Average inflation rate
4.28% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$632
Price difference ($100 base)
$532
CPI in 1959
29.1
CPI in 2003
184
Inflation in 1959
0.69%
Inflation in 2003
2.28%
$100 in 1959 → 2003
$632
$100 in 2003 → 1959
$15.82
What happened to prices between 1959 and 2003
Between 1959 and 2003, the Consumer Price Index went from 29.1 to 184.
Cumulatively, prices increased 532.3%, which works out to an average of
4.28% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1959 bought what
$0.16 buys in 2003: the 1959 dollar
lost 84.2% of its purchasing power over
these 44 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 2003 at the same ratio, 6.32: $1,000 becomes
$6,323, and $10,000 becomes $63,230.
Amount in 1959
Value in 2003
$1.00
$6.32
$5.00
$31.62
$10.00
$63.23
$20.00
$126
$50.00
$316
$100
$632
$500
$3,162
$1,000
$6,323
$5,000
$31,615
$10,000
$63,230
$100,000
$632,302
$1,000,000
$6,323,024
Inflation by spending category, 1959–2003
Between 1959 and 2003, medical care rose the most, up 1281.9%, while apparel rose the least, up 168.7%, against 532.3% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1959
spending costs in 2003, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1959 →
All items (CPI-U)
4.28%
$632
Medical care
6.15%
$1,382
Core (all items less food & energy)
4.31%
$640
Energy
4.25%
$623
Food
4.18%
$606
Transportation
3.86%
$529
Apparel
2.27%
$269
Not shown because the BLS began these indexes after 1959: housing (1967–), recreation (1993–), education & communication (1993–).
Decade by decade: 1959 to 2003
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 1959–2003 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
2000–2003
2.23%
6.9%
$632
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1959
$100 from 1959 had already become $312 by
1981, on its way to $632 in 2003; 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: 2003
In 2003, prices rose 2.3% and $100 from 1959 had the buying
power of $632; the year's average CPI of 184 is the level
behind every 2003 figure on this page.
Inflation was 2.3% in 2003, up from 1.6% in 2002, as gasoline climbed from $1.36 to $1.59 a
gallon around the March invasion of Iraq. Even so, the Federal Reserve spent the year worried
about prices being too low: on June 25 it cut its policy rate to 1.0%, the lowest since 1958,
and said the risk of deflation, though small, deserved a response. The median household earned
about $43,300 and a new home cost roughly $195,000. Congress passed a second round of tax cuts
in May, and the economy grew faster in the second half of the year than at any point since
1999. Hiring lagged the recovery, and unemployment peaked at 6.3% in June. A first-class stamp
stayed at 37 cents and the federal minimum wage at $5.15.
MLA: “Inflation from 1959 to 2003: $100 is worth $632 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1959-to-2003/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1959 to 2003. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1959-to-2003/