$100 in 1922 is worth $207 in 1968,
because prices increased 107.1% over that period, an average of
1.60% a year.
$100 in 1922 has
the same buying power as
$207
in 1968
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
107.1%
Average inflation rate
1.60% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$207
Price difference ($100 base)
$107
CPI in 1922
16.8
CPI in 1968
34.8
Inflation in 1922
-6.15%
Inflation in 1968
4.19%
$100 in 1922 → 1968
$207
$100 in 1968 → 1922
$48.28
What happened to prices between 1922 and 1968
Between 1922 and 1968, the Consumer Price Index went from 16.8 to 34.8.
Cumulatively, prices increased 107.1%, which works out to an average of
1.60% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1922 bought what
$0.48 buys in 1968: the 1922 dollar
lost 51.7% of its purchasing power over
these 46 years.
Consumer prices fell another 6.1% in 1922, the second straight year of
decline, even as the broader economy climbed out of the Depression of
1920-21 and industrial production rebounded. The CPI had now given back
roughly a third of its wartime runup, though it stayed well above the
1913 baseline. Congress moved to shield that recovery from
foreign competition: the Fordney-McCumber Tariff Act, signed September 21,
raised duties on hundreds of imported goods to some of the highest levels in
U.S. history, a policy meant to protect farmers and manufacturers still
adjusting to postwar prices. Labor tension flared even as prices fell.
Roughly half a million bituminous coal miners struck that April over wage
cuts employers had imposed as prices dropped, and hundreds of thousands of
railroad shop workers walked out in July in a separate dispute over pay and
work rules, together the largest strike wave since 1919. Both disputes
dragged on for months and drew federal mediation before ending without full
concessions for the workers. First-class postage remained at 2 cents.
Every 1922 amount converts to 1968 at the same ratio, 2.07: $1,000 becomes
$2,071, and $10,000 becomes $20,714.
Amount in 1922
Value in 1968
$1.00
$2.07
$5.00
$10.36
$10.00
$20.71
$20.00
$41.43
$50.00
$104
$100
$207
$500
$1,036
$1,000
$2,071
$5,000
$10,357
$10,000
$20,714
$100,000
$207,143
$1,000,000
$2,071,429
Inflation by spending category, 1922–1968
Between 1922 and 1968, food rose the most, up 136.9%, while apparel rose the least, up 98.9%, against 107.1% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1922
spending costs in 1968, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1922 →
All items (CPI-U)
1.60%
$207
Food
1.89%
$237
Apparel
1.51%
$199
Not shown because the BLS began these indexes after 1922: core (all items less food & energy) (1957–), energy (1957–), housing (1967–), medical care (1935–), transportation (1935–), recreation (1993–), education & communication (1993–).
Decade by decade: 1922 to 1968
Prices climbed fastest in the 1940s, averaging 5.58% a year, and fell in the 1930s (1.7% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1922–1968 change:
Years
Avg. yearly inflation
Price change
$100 from 1922, at end
1922–1930
-0.07%
-0.6%
$99.40
1930–1940
-1.75%
-16.2%
$83.33
1940–1950
5.58%
72.1%
$143
1950–1960
2.08%
22.8%
$176
1960–1968
2.04%
17.6%
$207
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1922
$100 from 1922 had already become $105 by
1944, on its way to $207 in 1968; each row shows the CPI, that
year's inflation rate, and the running value.
Within the span, inflation peaked at 14.4% in 1947, and prices fell 9.9% in 1932, the deepest deflation of the period.
Long periods are sampled every 2 years; the calculator above covers any pair of years.
The destination year: 1968
In 1968, prices rose 4.2% and $100 from 1922 had the buying
power of $207; the year's average CPI of 34.8 is the level
behind every 1968 figure on this page.
Consumer prices rose 4.2% in 1968, up sharply from 1967’s
3.1% and the fastest pace in 17 years, as Vietnam War spending and a tight
labor market pushed inflation higher despite the Federal Reserve’s
earlier tightening. The year was marked by political violence: Martin
Luther King Jr. was assassinated on a motel balcony in Memphis on April
4, touching off rioting in more than 100 cities, and Robert F. Kennedy was
shot in Los Angeles on June 5, moments after winning California’s
Democratic presidential primary, and died the next day. Washington tried
to answer the inflation problem directly that June 28, when Congress
passed a 10% income tax surcharge, the Revenue and Expenditure Control
Act, temporarily raising taxes and cutting spending to cool an economy
overheated by war and Great Society outlays; prices kept accelerating
anyway. The cost of living rose in smaller, more visible ways too:
first-class postage climbed to 6 cents that January 7, and the minimum
wage rose to $1.60 an hour that February 1, the final step of the
increase Congress had set two years earlier. Consumer prices finished
1968 251.5% above their 1913 level.
MLA: “Inflation from 1922 to 1968: $100 is worth $207 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1922-to-1968/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1922 to 1968. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1922-to-1968/