$100 in 1959 is worth $1,047 in 2023,
because prices increased 947.1% over that period, an average of
3.74% a year.
$100 in 1959 has
the same buying power as
$1,047
in 2023
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
947.1%
Average inflation rate
3.74% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$1,047
Price difference ($100 base)
$947
CPI in 1959
29.1
CPI in 2023
304.702
Inflation in 1959
0.69%
Inflation in 2023
4.12%
$100 in 1959 → 2023
$1,047
$100 in 2023 → 1959
$9.55
What happened to prices between 1959 and 2023
Between 1959 and 2023, the Consumer Price Index went from 29.1 to 304.702.
Cumulatively, prices increased 947.1%, which works out to an average of
3.74% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1959 bought what
$0.10 buys in 2023: the 1959 dollar
lost 90.4% of its purchasing power over
these 64 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 2023 at the same ratio, 10.47: $1,000 becomes
$10,471, and $10,000 becomes $104,709.
Amount in 1959
Value in 2023
$1.00
$10.47
$5.00
$52.35
$10.00
$105
$20.00
$209
$50.00
$524
$100
$1,047
$500
$5,235
$1,000
$10,471
$5,000
$52,354
$10,000
$104,709
$100,000
$1,047,086
$1,000,000
$10,470,859
Inflation by spending category, 1959–2023
Between 1959 and 2023, medical care rose the most, up 2453.9%, while apparel rose the least, up 190.2%, against 947.1% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1959
spending costs in 2023, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1959 →
All items (CPI-U)
3.74%
$1,047
Medical care
5.19%
$2,554
Energy
4.08%
$1,294
Food
3.80%
$1,087
Core (all items less food & energy)
3.70%
$1,021
Transportation
3.49%
$896
Apparel
1.68%
$290
Not shown because the BLS began these indexes after 1959: housing (1967–), recreation (1993–), education & communication (1993–).
Decade by decade: 1959 to 2023
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 1959–2023 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
2010–2020
1.73%
18.7%
$889
2020–2023
5.59%
17.7%
$1,047
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1959
$100 from 1959 had already become $426 by
1989, on its way to $1,047 in 2023; 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 5 years; the calculator above covers any pair of years.
The destination year: 2023
In 2023, prices rose 4.1% and $100 from 1959 had the buying
power of $1,047; the year's average CPI of 304.702 is the level
behind every 2023 figure on this page.
2023 was the year inflation came down without a recession. Consumer prices
rose 4.1% on average, roughly half of 2022’s 8.0%, and the December-to-December
rate fell to 3.4%. Gasoline averaged $3.52 a gallon, well below the 2022
average, and supply-chain pressure on goods eased. Shelter, restaurant meals,
and other services stayed expensive, so the CPI kept rising at a rate well
above the pre-pandemic pace.
The Federal Reserve completed its rate-hiking campaign in July, taking the
policy rate to 5.25–5.50%, the highest level in 22 years. The effects showed
up in banking: Silicon Valley Bank failed in March after rate increases eroded
the value of its bond portfolio, the second-largest bank failure in U.S.
history at the time. Despite that, unemployment stayed under 4% all year.
Median household income was $80,610 according to the Census Bureau. The
federal minimum wage stayed at $7.25, and a first-class stamp rose to 66 cents
in July.
MLA: “Inflation from 1959 to 2023: $100 is worth $1,047 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1959-to-2023/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1959 to 2023. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1959-to-2023/