$100 in 1959 is worth $814 in 2014,
because prices increased 713.5% over that period, an average of
3.88% a year.
$100 in 1959 has
the same buying power as
$814
in 2014
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
713.5%
Average inflation rate
3.88% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$814
Price difference ($100 base)
$714
CPI in 1959
29.1
CPI in 2014
236.736
Inflation in 1959
0.69%
Inflation in 2014
1.62%
$100 in 1959 → 2014
$814
$100 in 2014 → 1959
$12.29
What happened to prices between 1959 and 2014
Between 1959 and 2014, the Consumer Price Index went from 29.1 to 236.736.
Cumulatively, prices increased 713.5%, which works out to an average of
3.88% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1959 bought what
$0.12 buys in 2014: the 1959 dollar
lost 87.7% of its purchasing power over
these 55 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 2014 at the same ratio, 8.14: $1,000 becomes
$8,135, and $10,000 becomes $81,353.
Amount in 1959
Value in 2014
$1.00
$8.14
$5.00
$40.68
$10.00
$81.35
$20.00
$163
$50.00
$407
$100
$814
$500
$4,068
$1,000
$8,135
$5,000
$40,676
$10,000
$81,353
$100,000
$813,526
$1,000,000
$8,135,258
Inflation by spending category, 1959–2014
Between 1959 and 2014, medical care rose the most, up 1924.6%, while apparel rose the least, up 183.4%, against 713.5% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1959
spending costs in 2014, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1959 →
All items (CPI-U)
3.88%
$814
Medical care
5.62%
$2,025
Energy
4.48%
$1,112
Food
3.89%
$817
Core (all items less food & energy)
3.82%
$788
Transportation
3.67%
$725
Apparel
1.91%
$283
Not shown because the BLS began these indexes after 1959: housing (1967–), recreation (1993–), education & communication (1993–).
Decade by decade: 1959 to 2014
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 1959–2014 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
2010–2014
2.08%
8.6%
$814
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1959
$100 from 1959 had already become $390 by
1987, on its way to $814 in 2014; 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: 2014
In 2014, prices rose 1.6% and $100 from 1959 had the buying
power of $814; the year's average CPI of 236.736 is the level
behind every 2014 figure on this page.
2014 ended with the sharpest oil price drop in years. Consumer prices rose
1.6% for the year, close to 2013’s pace, but the annual figure hid a shift at
the pump: crude oil fell from above $100 a barrel in June to below $60 in
December, and gasoline finished the year near $2.25 a gallon after averaging
$3.37 across 2014. The drop reflected record U.S. shale output, softer
global demand, and OPEC’s decision in November to keep producing.
For households, cheaper fuel arrived just as the labor market strengthened.
Median household income was $53,657, essentially flat on the prior year, and
the median new home sold for about $288,500. The federal minimum wage stayed
at $7.25 for a fifth year, and a first-class stamp rose to 49 cents.
The Federal Reserve ended its bond purchases in October but left its policy
rate at zero. A stronger dollar helped hold down import prices. Because
energy weighs heavily in the CPI, the late-year slide carried into 2015, which
posted the smallest annual increase of the decade.
MLA: “Inflation from 1959 to 2014: $100 is worth $814 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1959-to-2014/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1959 to 2014. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1959-to-2014/