$100 in 1959 is worth $879 in 2019,
because prices increased 778.5% over that period, an average of
3.69% a year.
$100 in 1959 has
the same buying power as
$879
in 2019
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
778.5%
Average inflation rate
3.69% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$879
Price difference ($100 base)
$779
CPI in 1959
29.1
CPI in 2019
255.657
Inflation in 1959
0.69%
Inflation in 2019
1.81%
$100 in 1959 → 2019
$879
$100 in 2019 → 1959
$11.38
What happened to prices between 1959 and 2019
Between 1959 and 2019, the Consumer Price Index went from 29.1 to 255.657.
Cumulatively, prices increased 778.5%, which works out to an average of
3.69% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1959 bought what
$0.11 buys in 2019: the 1959 dollar
lost 88.6% of its purchasing power over
these 60 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 2019 at the same ratio, 8.79: $1,000 becomes
$8,785, and $10,000 becomes $87,855.
Amount in 1959
Value in 2019
$1.00
$8.79
$5.00
$43.93
$10.00
$87.85
$20.00
$176
$50.00
$439
$100
$879
$500
$4,393
$1,000
$8,785
$5,000
$43,927
$10,000
$87,855
$100,000
$878,546
$1,000,000
$8,785,464
Inflation by spending category, 1959–2019
Between 1959 and 2019, medical care rose the most, up 2218.2%, while apparel rose the least, up 175.7%, against 778.5% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1959
spending costs in 2019, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1959 →
All items (CPI-U)
3.69%
$879
Medical care
5.38%
$2,318
Energy
3.88%
$983
Core (all items less food & energy)
3.67%
$872
Food
3.67%
$870
Transportation
3.31%
$705
Apparel
1.70%
$276
Not shown because the BLS began these indexes after 1959: housing (1967–), recreation (1993–), education & communication (1993–).
Decade by decade: 1959 to 2019
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 1959–2019 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
2010–2019
1.78%
17.2%
$879
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1959
$100 from 1959 had already become $426 by
1989, on its way to $879 in 2019; 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: 2019
In 2019, prices rose 1.8% and $100 from 1959 had the buying
power of $879; the year's average CPI of 255.657 is the level
behind every 2019 figure on this page.
2019 was the last ordinary year before COVID-19. Consumer prices rose 1.8%,
slightly under the Federal Reserve’s 2% target, with gasoline averaging
$2.60 a gallon. Median household income jumped to $68,703, the highest on
record up to that point, and the median new home sold for about $328,000. A
first-class stamp rose to 55 cents.
The Fed reversed course. After four increases in 2018, it cut rates three
times, to 1.50–1.75%, citing slower global growth, trade tensions, and low
inflation. In July the expansion that began in June 2009 became the longest in
U.S. records, and in August the yield curve briefly inverted, a signal
investors read as a recession warning.
For workers at the bottom of the pay scale, 2019 marked a milestone of a
different kind. The federal minimum wage stayed at $7.25 and reached its tenth
year without an increase, the longest gap since the wage was first set. Because
prices had climbed about 19% since it was last raised in 2009, its buying power
was lower than at any point in that span.
MLA: “Inflation from 1959 to 2019: $100 is worth $879 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1959-to-2019/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1959 to 2019. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1959-to-2019/