$100 in 1959 is worth $749 in 2010,
because prices increased 649.3% over that period, an average of
4.03% a year.
$100 in 1959 has
the same buying power as
$749
in 2010
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
649.3%
Average inflation rate
4.03% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$749
Price difference ($100 base)
$649
CPI in 1959
29.1
CPI in 2010
218.056
Inflation in 1959
0.69%
Inflation in 2010
1.64%
$100 in 1959 → 2010
$749
$100 in 2010 → 1959
$13.35
What happened to prices between 1959 and 2010
Between 1959 and 2010, the Consumer Price Index went from 29.1 to 218.056.
Cumulatively, prices increased 649.3%, which works out to an average of
4.03% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1959 bought what
$0.13 buys in 2010: the 1959 dollar
lost 86.7% of its purchasing power over
these 51 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 2010 at the same ratio, 7.49: $1,000 becomes
$7,493, and $10,000 becomes $74,933.
Amount in 1959
Value in 2010
$1.00
$7.49
$5.00
$37.47
$10.00
$74.93
$20.00
$150
$50.00
$375
$100
$749
$500
$3,747
$1,000
$7,493
$5,000
$37,467
$10,000
$74,933
$100,000
$749,333
$1,000,000
$7,493,333
Inflation by spending category, 1959–2010
Between 1959 and 2010, medical care rose the most, up 1706.7%, while apparel rose the least, up 165.6%, against 649.3% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1959
spending costs in 2010, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1959 →
All items (CPI-U)
4.03%
$749
Medical care
5.84%
$1,807
Energy
4.55%
$966
Food
4.00%
$739
Core (all items less food & energy)
3.98%
$733
Transportation
3.74%
$649
Apparel
1.93%
$266
Not shown because the BLS began these indexes after 1959: housing (1967–), recreation (1993–), education & communication (1993–).
Decade by decade: 1959 to 2010
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 1959–2010 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
2000–2010
2.39%
26.6%
$749
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1959
$100 from 1959 had already become $370 by
1985, on its way to $749 in 2010; 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 prices fell 0.4% in 2009, the deepest deflation of the period.
Long periods are sampled every 2 years; the calculator above covers any pair of years.
The destination year: 2010
In 2010, prices rose 1.6% and $100 from 1959 had the buying
power of $749; the year's average CPI of 218.056 is the level
behind every 2010 figure on this page.
2010 was a year of recovery without much price pressure. The CPI rose 1.6%, a
return to growth after 2009’s deflation, with gasoline averaging $2.78 a
gallon as energy prices climbed back from their recession lows. Housing costs
barely moved: millions of foreclosed and vacant homes kept rents soft, and the
median new home sold for about $221,800. The federal minimum wage stayed at
$7.25, the level set in July 2009, and a first-class stamp cost 44 cents.
The Federal Reserve was more worried about too little inflation than too
much. Its policy rate sat at 0–0.25%, and in November it announced a further
$600 billion of Treasury purchases to hold down long-term borrowing costs.
Congress passed the Dodd-Frank Act in July to tighten financial regulation,
while a 110 billion euro rescue of Greece in May showed that the crisis had
moved from American mortgages to European government debt. For anyone
comparing dollars across the decade, 2010 is a useful baseline: prices were
still close to their 2008 levels, and the years ahead brought a slow, steady
climb.
MLA: “Inflation from 1959 to 2010: $100 is worth $749 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1959-to-2010/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1959 to 2010. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1959-to-2010/