$100 in 1933 is worth $268 in 1968,
because prices increased 167.7% over that period, an average of
2.85% a year.
$100 in 1933 has
the same buying power as
$268
in 1968
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
167.7%
Average inflation rate
2.85% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$268
Price difference ($100 base)
$168
CPI in 1933
13
CPI in 1968
34.8
Inflation in 1933
-5.11%
Inflation in 1968
4.19%
$100 in 1933 → 1968
$268
$100 in 1968 → 1933
$37.36
What happened to prices between 1933 and 1968
Between 1933 and 1968, the Consumer Price Index went from 13 to 34.8.
Cumulatively, prices increased 167.7%, which works out to an average of
2.85% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1933 bought what
$0.37 buys in 1968: the 1933 dollar
lost 62.6% of its purchasing power over
these 35 years.
Consumer prices fell 5.1% in 1933, a smaller decline than 1932’s
but enough to complete a four-year slide of 24.0% from the 1929
peak. The National Bureau of Economic Research dates the trough of that
contraction to March 1933, closing out the longest downturn in its
chronology, one that had run 43 months since August 1929. The bottom
arrived alongside a change in government: Franklin D. Roosevelt was
inaugurated March 4 and, within 48 hours, ordered every bank in the country
closed to halt a fresh round of runs. Congress passed the Emergency Banking
Act on March 9, letting solvent banks reopen under federal supervision, and
the panic that had been building for months broke almost immediately. The
administration moved on the currency next: Executive Order 6102, issued
April 5, required Americans to turn in most gold coin, bullion, and
certificates to the Federal Reserve, taking the country off the domestic
gold standard (formal devaluation of the dollar followed the next January).
Congress capped the year’s banking overhaul in June with the Banking Act of
1933, commonly called Glass-Steagall, which created the Federal Deposit
Insurance Corporation and separated commercial banking from investment
banking. Even after four straight years of falling prices, the CPI still
stood 31.3% above its 1913 level. First-class postage held at
3 cents.
Every 1933 amount converts to 1968 at the same ratio, 2.68: $1,000 becomes
$2,677, and $10,000 becomes $26,769.
Amount in 1933
Value in 1968
$1.00
$2.68
$5.00
$13.38
$10.00
$26.77
$20.00
$53.54
$50.00
$134
$100
$268
$500
$1,338
$1,000
$2,677
$5,000
$13,385
$10,000
$26,769
$100,000
$267,692
$1,000,000
$2,676,923
Inflation by spending category, 1933–1968
Between 1933 and 1968, food rose the most, up 239.4%, while apparel rose the least, up 185.6%, against 167.7% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1933
spending costs in 1968, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1933 →
All items (CPI-U)
2.85%
$268
Food
3.55%
$339
Apparel
3.04%
$286
Not shown because the BLS began these indexes after 1933: core (all items less food & energy) (1957–), energy (1957–), housing (1967–), medical care (1935–), transportation (1935–), recreation (1993–), education & communication (1993–).
Decade by decade: 1933 to 1968
Prices climbed fastest in the 1940s, averaging 5.58% a year, and slowest in the 1930s (1.06% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1933–1968 change:
Years
Avg. yearly inflation
Price change
$100 from 1933, at end
1933–1940
1.06%
7.7%
$108
1940–1950
5.58%
72.1%
$185
1950–1960
2.08%
22.8%
$228
1960–1968
2.04%
17.6%
$268
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1933
$100 from 1933 had already become $200 by
1951, on its way to $268 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 2.1% in 1938, 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 1933 had the buying
power of $268; 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 1933 to 1968: $100 is worth $268 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1933-to-1968/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1933 to 1968. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1933-to-1968/