$100 in 1959 is worth $713 in 2007,
because prices increased 612.5% over that period, an average of
4.18% a year.
$100 in 1959 has
the same buying power as
$713
in 2007
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
612.5%
Average inflation rate
4.18% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$713
Price difference ($100 base)
$613
CPI in 1959
29.1
CPI in 2007
207.342
Inflation in 1959
0.69%
Inflation in 2007
2.85%
$100 in 1959 → 2007
$713
$100 in 2007 → 1959
$14.03
What happened to prices between 1959 and 2007
Between 1959 and 2007, the Consumer Price Index went from 29.1 to 207.342.
Cumulatively, prices increased 612.5%, which works out to an average of
4.18% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1959 bought what
$0.14 buys in 2007: the 1959 dollar
lost 86.0% of its purchasing power over
these 48 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 2007 at the same ratio, 7.13: $1,000 becomes
$7,125, and $10,000 becomes $71,252.
Amount in 1959
Value in 2007
$1.00
$7.13
$5.00
$35.63
$10.00
$71.25
$20.00
$143
$50.00
$356
$100
$713
$500
$3,563
$1,000
$7,125
$5,000
$35,626
$10,000
$71,252
$100,000
$712,515
$1,000,000
$7,125,155
Inflation by spending category, 1959–2007
Between 1959 and 2007, medical care rose the most, up 1532.8%, while apparel rose the least, up 164.4%, against 612.5% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1959
spending costs in 2007, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1959 →
All items (CPI-U)
4.18%
$713
Medical care
5.99%
$1,633
Energy
4.80%
$949
Core (all items less food & energy)
4.13%
$698
Food
4.08%
$683
Transportation
3.87%
$620
Apparel
2.05%
$264
Not shown because the BLS began these indexes after 1959: housing (1967–), recreation (1993–), education & communication (1993–).
Decade by decade: 1959 to 2007
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 1959–2007 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
2000–2007
2.69%
20.4%
$713
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1959
$100 from 1959 had already become $342 by
1983, on its way to $713 in 2007; 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: 2007
In 2007, prices rose 2.8% and $100 from 1959 had the buying
power of $713; the year's average CPI of 207.342 is the level
behind every 2007 figure on this page.
Inflation was 2.8% in 2007, with gasoline averaging $2.80 a gallon, but the year is better
known for what began underneath prices. In August, French bank BNP Paribas froze funds tied to
U.S. subprime mortgages, and credit between banks tightened. The Federal Reserve responded with
a half-point cut on September 18, its first in four years, and took the policy rate from 5.25% to
4.25% by December. The economy peaked that month, by the National Bureau of Economic Research’s
dating, and the Great Recession followed. The median household earned about $50,200, and the
median new home cost $247,900. Congress ended the decade-long freeze on the federal minimum wage
in May, with the first of three steps to $5.85 in July. A first-class stamp cost 41 cents.
MLA: “Inflation from 1959 to 2007: $100 is worth $713 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1959-to-2007/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1959 to 2007. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1959-to-2007/