$100 in 1928 is worth $173 in 1960,
because prices increased 73.1% over that period, an average of
1.73% a year.
$100 in 1928 has
the same buying power as
$173
in 1960
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
73.1%
Average inflation rate
1.73% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$173
Price difference ($100 base)
$73.10
CPI in 1928
17.1
CPI in 1960
29.6
Inflation in 1928
-1.72%
Inflation in 1960
1.72%
$100 in 1928 → 1960
$173
$100 in 1960 → 1928
$57.77
What happened to prices between 1928 and 1960
Between 1928 and 1960, the Consumer Price Index went from 17.1 to 29.6.
Cumulatively, prices increased 73.1%, which works out to an average of
1.73% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1928 bought what
$0.58 buys in 1960: the 1928 dollar
lost 42.2% of its purchasing power over
these 32 years.
Consumer prices fell 1.7% in 1928, the second straight year of mild decline
even as the stock market climbed sharply, a widening gap between asset
prices and the cost of living that later economists pointed to as an early
warning sign. The Federal Reserve tightened policy repeatedly over the year,
raising its discount rate in an effort to slow the flood of borrowed money
pouring into stock purchases without derailing the broader economy, a
balancing act it ultimately failed to manage. Herbert Hoover won the
presidential election that November, defeating Democrat Al Smith on a
platform built around continuing the prosperity of the Coolidge years; few
voters or policymakers anticipated how quickly that prosperity would end.
First-class postage remained at 2 cents, a price that had now held for nine
straight years.
Every 1928 amount converts to 1960 at the same ratio, 1.73: $1,000 becomes
$1,731, and $10,000 becomes $17,310.
Amount in 1928
Value in 1960
$1.00
$1.73
$5.00
$8.65
$10.00
$17.31
$20.00
$34.62
$50.00
$86.55
$100
$173
$500
$865
$1,000
$1,731
$5,000
$8,655
$10,000
$17,310
$100,000
$173,099
$1,000,000
$1,730,994
Inflation by spending category, 1928–1960
Between 1928 and 1960, food rose the most, up 84.0%, while apparel rose the least, up 82.8%, against 73.1% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1928
spending costs in 1960, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1928 →
All items (CPI-U)
1.73%
$173
Food
1.92%
$184
Apparel
1.90%
$183
Not shown because the BLS began these indexes after 1928: core (all items less food & energy) (1957–), energy (1957–), housing (1967–), medical care (1935–), transportation (1935–), recreation (1993–), education & communication (1993–).
Decade by decade: 1928 to 1960
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 1928–1960 change:
Years
Avg. yearly inflation
Price change
$100 from 1928, at end
1928–1930
-1.18%
-2.3%
$97.66
1930–1940
-1.75%
-16.2%
$81.87
1940–1950
5.58%
72.1%
$141
1950–1960
2.08%
22.8%
$173
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1928
$100 from 1928 had already become $103 by
1944, on its way to $173 in 1960; 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: 1960
In 1960, prices rose 1.7% and $100 from 1928 had the buying
power of $173; the year's average CPI of 29.6 is the level
behind every 1960 figure on this page.
Consumer prices rose 1.7% in 1960, up from 1959’s 0.7% even
as the economy slipped into recession that April, a downturn that would
prove the shortest since World War II. The year’s defining political
moment came that November, when John F. Kennedy narrowly defeated Richard
Nixon in one of the closest presidential elections in U.S. history,
decided by roughly two-tenths of a percentage point in the popular vote.
Television played a new role in the race: the first-ever televised
presidential debate that September, watched by an estimated 70 million
people, was widely seen as favoring the telegenic Kennedy. Civil rights
protest took a new form that February, when four Black freshmen at North
Carolina A&T State University sat down at a whites-only Woolworth’s lunch
counter in Greensboro and refused to leave; the sit-in tactic spread to
dozens of Southern cities within weeks. Cold War tensions flared that May,
when a Soviet missile downed an American U-2 spy plane deep inside Soviet
airspace. The pilot, Francis Gary Powers, was captured alive, embarrassing
the Eisenhower administration and collapsing a Paris summit called to ease
relations with Moscow. Consumer prices finished 1960 199.0% above their
1913 level. First-class postage held at 4 cents, and the
minimum wage stayed at $1.00 an hour.
MLA: “Inflation from 1928 to 1960: $100 is worth $173 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1928-to-1960/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1928 to 1960. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1928-to-1960/