$100 in 1959 is worth $842 in 2017,
because prices increased 742.3% over that period, an average of
3.74% a year.
$100 in 1959 has
the same buying power as
$842
in 2017
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
742.3%
Average inflation rate
3.74% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$842
Price difference ($100 base)
$742
CPI in 1959
29.1
CPI in 2017
245.12
Inflation in 1959
0.69%
Inflation in 2017
2.13%
$100 in 1959 → 2017
$842
$100 in 2017 → 1959
$11.87
What happened to prices between 1959 and 2017
Between 1959 and 2017, the Consumer Price Index went from 29.1 to 245.12.
Cumulatively, prices increased 742.3%, which works out to an average of
3.74% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1959 bought what
$0.12 buys in 2017: the 1959 dollar
lost 88.1% of its purchasing power over
these 58 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 2017 at the same ratio, 8.42: $1,000 becomes
$8,423, and $10,000 becomes $84,234.
Amount in 1959
Value in 2017
$1.00
$8.42
$5.00
$42.12
$10.00
$84.23
$20.00
$168
$50.00
$421
$100
$842
$500
$4,212
$1,000
$8,423
$5,000
$42,117
$10,000
$84,234
$100,000
$842,337
$1,000,000
$8,423,368
Inflation by spending category, 1959–2017
Between 1959 and 2017, medical care rose the most, up 2110.8%, while apparel rose the least, up 179.1%, against 742.3% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1959
spending costs in 2017, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1959 →
All items (CPI-U)
3.74%
$842
Medical care
5.48%
$2,211
Energy
3.93%
$934
Food
3.74%
$842
Core (all items less food & energy)
3.73%
$835
Transportation
3.35%
$676
Apparel
1.79%
$279
Not shown because the BLS began these indexes after 1959: housing (1967–), recreation (1993–), education & communication (1993–).
Decade by decade: 1959 to 2017
Prices climbed fastest in the 1970s, averaging 7.82% a year, and slowest in the 2010s (1.69% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1959–2017 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
2010–2017
1.69%
12.4%
$842
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1959
$100 from 1959 had already become $390 by
1987, on its way to $842 in 2017; 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: 2017
In 2017, prices rose 2.1% and $100 from 1959 had the buying
power of $842; the year's average CPI of 245.12 is the level
behind every 2017 figure on this page.
2017 pushed consumer prices back above the Federal Reserve’s 2% target. The
CPI rose 2.1%, the first reading over 2% in five years, helped by a rebound
in energy after OPEC’s output cuts and by a storm-related spike at the pump:
Hurricane Harvey shut a large part of Gulf Coast refining in late August.
Gasoline averaged $2.42 a gallon, up from $2.14 in 2016.
Household incomes kept rising. The median household income reached $61,372,
and the median new home sold for about $322,100. The federal minimum wage
stayed at $7.25, its eighth year at that level, and a first-class stamp rose
to 49 cents.
The Fed raised rates three times, to 1.25–1.50%, and in October began
letting its bond holdings shrink. Congress passed the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act
in December, lowering the corporate rate to 21%. Even with unemployment near
4%, core inflation stayed under 2%, a puzzle that shaped Fed debates for the
next two years.
MLA: “Inflation from 1959 to 2017: $100 is worth $842 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1959-to-2017/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1959 to 2017. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1959-to-2017/