$100 in 1959 is worth $671 in 2005,
because prices increased 571.1% over that period, an average of
4.23% a year.
$100 in 1959 has
the same buying power as
$671
in 2005
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
571.1%
Average inflation rate
4.23% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$671
Price difference ($100 base)
$571
CPI in 1959
29.1
CPI in 2005
195.3
Inflation in 1959
0.69%
Inflation in 2005
3.39%
$100 in 1959 → 2005
$671
$100 in 2005 → 1959
$14.90
What happened to prices between 1959 and 2005
Between 1959 and 2005, the Consumer Price Index went from 29.1 to 195.3.
Cumulatively, prices increased 571.1%, which works out to an average of
4.23% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1959 bought what
$0.15 buys in 2005: the 1959 dollar
lost 85.1% of its purchasing power over
these 46 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 2005 at the same ratio, 6.71: $1,000 becomes
$6,711, and $10,000 becomes $67,113.
Amount in 1959
Value in 2005
$1.00
$6.71
$5.00
$33.56
$10.00
$67.11
$20.00
$134
$50.00
$336
$100
$671
$500
$3,356
$1,000
$6,711
$5,000
$33,557
$10,000
$67,113
$100,000
$671,134
$1,000,000
$6,711,340
Inflation by spending category, 1959–2005
Between 1959 and 2005, medical care rose the most, up 1403.3%, while apparel rose the least, up 165.6%, against 571.1% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1959
spending costs in 2005, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1959 →
All items (CPI-U)
4.23%
$671
Medical care
6.07%
$1,503
Energy
4.65%
$809
Core (all items less food & energy)
4.21%
$665
Food
4.13%
$642
Transportation
3.91%
$584
Apparel
2.15%
$266
Not shown because the BLS began these indexes after 1959: housing (1967–), recreation (1993–), education & communication (1993–).
Decade by decade: 1959 to 2005
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 1959–2005 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
2000–2005
2.55%
13.4%
$671
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1959
$100 from 1959 had already become $312 by
1981, on its way to $671 in 2005; 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: 2005
In 2005, prices rose 3.4% and $100 from 1959 had the buying
power of $671; the year's average CPI of 195.3 is the level
behind every 2005 figure on this page.
Inflation rose to 3.4% in 2005, up from 2.7% in 2004, as gasoline averaged $2.30 a gallon,
compared with $1.88 the year before. Hurricane Katrina made landfall on August 29, and with
Hurricane Rita weeks later it disrupted Gulf Coast refining, pushing the national average
price past $3 in early September. The Federal Reserve raised its policy rate at every meeting,
from 2.25% to 4.25%, to keep energy costs from feeding into other prices. The median household
earned about $46,300, up 4.5% from 2004, but the median new home price rose a further 9%, to
$240,900. In April, Congress passed a bankruptcy law that made it harder to clear debts. A
first-class stamp stayed at 37 cents until January 2006, and the federal minimum wage stayed
at $5.15.
MLA: “Inflation from 1959 to 2005: $100 is worth $671 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1959-to-2005/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1959 to 2005. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1959-to-2005/