$100 in 1959 is worth $789 in 2012,
because prices increased 689.0% over that period, an average of
3.97% a year.
$100 in 1959 has
the same buying power as
$789
in 2012
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
689.0%
Average inflation rate
3.97% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$789
Price difference ($100 base)
$689
CPI in 1959
29.1
CPI in 2012
229.594
Inflation in 1959
0.69%
Inflation in 2012
2.07%
$100 in 1959 → 2012
$789
$100 in 2012 → 1959
$12.67
What happened to prices between 1959 and 2012
Between 1959 and 2012, the Consumer Price Index went from 29.1 to 229.594.
Cumulatively, prices increased 689.0%, which works out to an average of
3.97% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1959 bought what
$0.13 buys in 2012: the 1959 dollar
lost 87.3% of its purchasing power over
these 53 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 2012 at the same ratio, 7.89: $1,000 becomes
$7,890, and $10,000 becomes $78,898.
Amount in 1959
Value in 2012
$1.00
$7.89
$5.00
$39.45
$10.00
$78.90
$20.00
$158
$50.00
$394
$100
$789
$500
$3,945
$1,000
$7,890
$5,000
$39,449
$10,000
$78,898
$100,000
$788,983
$1,000,000
$7,889,828
Inflation by spending category, 1959–2012
Between 1959 and 2012, medical care rose the most, up 1829.9%, while apparel rose the least, up 180.6%, against 689.0% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1959
spending costs in 2012, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1959 →
All items (CPI-U)
3.97%
$789
Medical care
5.74%
$1,930
Energy
4.67%
$1,124
Food
3.97%
$787
Core (all items less food & energy)
3.90%
$761
Transportation
3.82%
$729
Apparel
1.97%
$281
Not shown because the BLS began these indexes after 1959: housing (1967–), recreation (1993–), education & communication (1993–).
Decade by decade: 1959 to 2012
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 1959–2012 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
2010–2012
2.61%
5.3%
$789
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1959
$100 from 1959 had already become $370 by
1985, on its way to $789 in 2012; 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: 2012
In 2012, prices rose 2.1% and $100 from 1959 had the buying
power of $789; the year's average CPI of 229.594 is the level
behind every 2012 figure on this page.
2012 put a number on what the Federal Reserve was aiming for. In January the
Fed announced a 2% inflation target, and consumer prices rose 2.1% for the
year, almost exactly on it. Gasoline averaged $3.62 a gallon, another annual
high, but the pace of increase cooled from 2011’s 3.2% as food and core prices
grew more slowly.
The bigger story was housing and jobs. Home prices began to recover, and the
median new home sold for about $245,200, up from $227,200 the year before.
Median household income was $51,017. The federal minimum wage held at $7.25,
and a first-class stamp rose to 45 cents.
In September the Fed started a third round of asset purchases, this one with
no fixed end date, aimed at lowering unemployment. Overseas, the European
Central Bank’s July pledge to do “whatever it takes” to save the euro calmed
bond markets. A summer drought across the Midwest drove corn and soybean
prices to records, a shock that reached grocery shelves only partly, because
most of what shoppers pay for food covers processing and transport rather than
raw crops.
MLA: “Inflation from 1959 to 2012: $100 is worth $789 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1959-to-2012/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1959 to 2012. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1959-to-2012/