$100 in 1959 is worth $863 in 2018,
because prices increased 762.9% over that period, an average of
3.72% a year.
$100 in 1959 has
the same buying power as
$863
in 2018
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
762.9%
Average inflation rate
3.72% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$863
Price difference ($100 base)
$763
CPI in 1959
29.1
CPI in 2018
251.107
Inflation in 1959
0.69%
Inflation in 2018
2.44%
$100 in 1959 → 2018
$863
$100 in 2018 → 1959
$11.59
What happened to prices between 1959 and 2018
Between 1959 and 2018, the Consumer Price Index went from 29.1 to 251.107.
Cumulatively, prices increased 762.9%, which works out to an average of
3.72% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1959 bought what
$0.12 buys in 2018: the 1959 dollar
lost 88.4% of its purchasing power over
these 59 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 2018 at the same ratio, 8.63: $1,000 becomes
$8,629, and $10,000 becomes $86,291.
Amount in 1959
Value in 2018
$1.00
$8.63
$5.00
$43.15
$10.00
$86.29
$20.00
$173
$50.00
$431
$100
$863
$500
$4,315
$1,000
$8,629
$5,000
$43,146
$10,000
$86,291
$100,000
$862,911
$1,000,000
$8,629,107
Inflation by spending category, 1959–2018
Between 1959 and 2018, medical care rose the most, up 2154.5%, while apparel rose the least, up 179.2%, against 762.9% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1959
spending costs in 2018, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1959 →
All items (CPI-U)
3.72%
$863
Medical care
5.42%
$2,254
Energy
3.99%
$1,004
Food
3.70%
$854
Core (all items less food & energy)
3.70%
$853
Transportation
3.37%
$707
Apparel
1.76%
$279
Not shown because the BLS began these indexes after 1959: housing (1967–), recreation (1993–), education & communication (1993–).
Decade by decade: 1959 to 2018
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 1959–2018 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
2010–2018
1.78%
15.2%
$863
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1959
$100 from 1959 had already become $426 by
1989, on its way to $863 in 2018; 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: 2018
In 2018, prices rose 2.4% and $100 from 1959 had the buying
power of $863; the year's average CPI of 251.107 is the level
behind every 2018 figure on this page.
2018 was the peak of the late-2010s expansion. Consumer prices rose 2.4%,
the fastest since 2011, with gasoline averaging $2.72 a gallon after a summer
high. Unemployment fell to 3.7% in September, the lowest since 1969, and median
household income reached $63,179. The median new home sold for about $331,800,
and a first-class stamp cost 50 cents. The federal minimum wage was still $7.25.
Trade policy became a price factor for the first time in decades. New tariffs
on steel, aluminum, and a growing list of Chinese goods raised costs for
manufacturers and some consumer products, and retaliation cut into exports of
soybeans and other farm goods.
The Federal Reserve, led from February by Jerome Powell, raised rates four
times to 2.25–2.50%. A stock-market drop of nearly 20% in the fourth quarter
led the Fed to signal a pause in early 2019. Oil fell from over $75 a barrel in
October to below $50 by December, which pulled headline inflation lower going
into the next year.
MLA: “Inflation from 1959 to 2018: $100 is worth $863 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1959-to-2018/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1959 to 2018. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1959-to-2018/