$100 in 1928 is worth $195 in 1967,
because prices increased 95.3% over that period, an average of
1.73% a year.
$100 in 1928 has
the same buying power as
$195
in 1967
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
95.3%
Average inflation rate
1.73% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$195
Price difference ($100 base)
$95.32
CPI in 1928
17.1
CPI in 1967
33.4
Inflation in 1928
-1.72%
Inflation in 1967
3.09%
$100 in 1928 → 1967
$195
$100 in 1967 → 1928
$51.20
What happened to prices between 1928 and 1967
Between 1928 and 1967, the Consumer Price Index went from 17.1 to 33.4.
Cumulatively, prices increased 95.3%, which works out to an average of
1.73% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1928 bought what
$0.51 buys in 1967: the 1928 dollar
lost 48.8% of its purchasing power over
these 39 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 1967 at the same ratio, 1.95: $1,000 becomes
$1,953, and $10,000 becomes $19,532.
Amount in 1928
Value in 1967
$1.00
$1.95
$5.00
$9.77
$10.00
$19.53
$20.00
$39.06
$50.00
$97.66
$100
$195
$500
$977
$1,000
$1,953
$5,000
$9,766
$10,000
$19,532
$100,000
$195,322
$1,000,000
$1,953,216
Inflation by spending category, 1928–1967
Between 1928 and 1967, food rose the most, up 109.2%, while apparel rose the least, up 104.0%, against 95.3% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1928
spending costs in 1967, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1928 →
All items (CPI-U)
1.73%
$195
Food
1.91%
$209
Apparel
1.84%
$204
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 1967
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 1928–1967 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
1960–1967
1.74%
12.8%
$195
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1928
$100 from 1928 had already become $141 by
1948, on its way to $195 in 1967; 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: 1967
In 1967, prices rose 3.1% and $100 from 1928 had the buying
power of $195; the year's average CPI of 33.4 is the level
behind every 1967 figure on this page.
Consumer prices rose 3.1% in 1967, up from 1966’s 2.9% as
Vietnam War spending kept climbing alongside expanding Great Society
programs, a combination of rising military and domestic outlays that
economists later blamed for entrenching inflation through the rest of the
decade. The minimum wage rose that February 1, to $1.40 an hour, the
first step of a phased increase Congress had set the year before. Urban
unrest reached a peak that July, when days of rioting left 26 dead in
Newark and 43 dead in Detroit, the deadliest of that summer’s roughly 160
disturbances; Johnson responded by forming the Kerner Commission to study
the causes of the unrest. The Supreme Court gained its first Black
justice that year too: the Senate confirmed Thurgood Marshall on August
30, and he was sworn in that October after serving as U.S. Solicitor
General and, before that, as the lead attorney in Brown v. Board of
Education. Consumer prices finished 1967 237.4% above their
1913 level. First-class postage held at 5 cents.
MLA: “Inflation from 1928 to 1967: $100 is worth $195 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1928-to-1967/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1928 to 1967. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1928-to-1967/