$100 in 1959 is worth $825 in 2016,
because prices increased 724.8% over that period, an average of
3.77% a year.
$100 in 1959 has
the same buying power as
$825
in 2016
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
724.8%
Average inflation rate
3.77% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$825
Price difference ($100 base)
$725
CPI in 1959
29.1
CPI in 2016
240.007
Inflation in 1959
0.69%
Inflation in 2016
1.26%
$100 in 1959 → 2016
$825
$100 in 2016 → 1959
$12.12
What happened to prices between 1959 and 2016
Between 1959 and 2016, the Consumer Price Index went from 29.1 to 240.007.
Cumulatively, prices increased 724.8%, which works out to an average of
3.77% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1959 bought what
$0.12 buys in 2016: the 1959 dollar
lost 87.9% of its purchasing power over
these 57 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 2016 at the same ratio, 8.25: $1,000 becomes
$8,248, and $10,000 becomes $82,477.
Amount in 1959
Value in 2016
$1.00
$8.25
$5.00
$41.24
$10.00
$82.48
$20.00
$165
$50.00
$412
$100
$825
$500
$4,124
$1,000
$8,248
$5,000
$41,238
$10,000
$82,477
$100,000
$824,766
$1,000,000
$8,247,663
Inflation by spending category, 1959–2016
Between 1959 and 2016, medical care rose the most, up 2056.6%, while apparel rose the least, up 180.1%, against 724.8% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1959
spending costs in 2016, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1959 →
All items (CPI-U)
3.77%
$825
Medical care
5.54%
$2,157
Energy
3.86%
$865
Food
3.79%
$835
Core (all items less food & energy)
3.76%
$820
Transportation
3.35%
$654
Apparel
1.82%
$280
Not shown because the BLS began these indexes after 1959: housing (1967–), recreation (1993–), education & communication (1993–).
Decade by decade: 1959 to 2016
Prices climbed fastest in the 1970s, averaging 7.82% a year, and slowest in the 2010s (1.61% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1959–2016 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
2010–2016
1.61%
10.1%
$825
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1959
$100 from 1959 had already become $390 by
1987, on its way to $825 in 2016; 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: 2016
In 2016, prices rose 1.3% and $100 from 1959 had the buying
power of $825; the year's average CPI of 240.007 is the level
behind every 2016 figure on this page.
2016 opened with the cheapest oil in more than a decade and closed with a
change in political direction. Crude fell to about $26 a barrel in February,
and gasoline averaged $2.14 a gallon for the year, its lowest annual
average since 2004. Headline inflation was 1.3%, a modest rebound from 2015’s
0.1%, though prices excluding food and energy rose faster, driven by rents and
health care.
Median household income rose to $59,039, the second large gain in a row, and
the median new home sold for about $307,800. The federal minimum wage held at
$7.25, and a first-class stamp fell to 47 cents after a January rate cut, a
rare decrease.
Two votes changed the outlook. Britain’s June decision to leave the European
Union unsettled currency markets, and the U.S. election in November raised
expectations of tax cuts, deficits, and faster growth, sending long-term
interest rates higher. OPEC’s November output cut ended the oil slump, and the
Federal Reserve made its second rate increase in December, to 0.50–0.75%.
MLA: “Inflation from 1959 to 2016: $100 is worth $825 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1959-to-2016/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1959 to 2016. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1959-to-2016/