$100 in 1950 is worth $139 in 1967,
because prices increased 38.6% over that period, an average of
1.94% a year.
$100 in 1950 has
the same buying power as
$139
in 1967
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
38.6%
Average inflation rate
1.94% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$139
Price difference ($100 base)
$38.59
CPI in 1950
24.1
CPI in 1967
33.4
Inflation in 1950
1.26%
Inflation in 1967
3.09%
$100 in 1950 → 1967
$139
$100 in 1967 → 1950
$72.16
What happened to prices between 1950 and 1967
Between 1950 and 1967, the Consumer Price Index went from 24.1 to 33.4.
Cumulatively, prices increased 38.6%, which works out to an average of
1.94% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1950 bought what
$0.72 buys in 1967: the 1950 dollar
lost 27.8% of its purchasing power over
these 17 years.
Consumer prices rose 1.3% in 1950, up from 1949’s 1.2%
decline, a mild gain that hid a sharp turn partway through the year. The
cost of living had been roughly flat through the spring, then jumped after
North Korea invaded South Korea on June 25, setting off a wave of hoarding
and defense buying reminiscent of World War II shortages. The United
States entered the war within days under a United Nations mandate;
American and South Korean forces were pushed back to the Pusan Perimeter
that summer before a landing at Inchon that September reversed the front,
and China’s entry into the war that November turned it into a longer
stalemate. Congress moved to put the economy on a war footing that
September, passing the Defense Production Act, which gave the president
authority to direct industrial output toward the military and, if prices
kept climbing, to impose formal wage and price controls. Domestic policy
also expanded that year: the Social Security Amendments of 1950, signed
August 28, raised benefits across the board and extended coverage to
roughly 10 million more workers, the program’s first major expansion since
it began in 1935. Consumer prices finished 1950 143.4% above their
1913 level, matching 1948’s postwar high
after 1949’s brief decline. First-class postage held at 3 cents, and the
minimum wage stood at 75 cents an hour after January’s increase.
Every 1950 amount converts to 1967 at the same ratio, 1.39: $1,000 becomes
$1,386, and $10,000 becomes $13,859.
Amount in 1950
Value in 1967
$1.00
$1.39
$5.00
$6.93
$10.00
$13.86
$20.00
$27.72
$50.00
$69.29
$100
$139
$500
$693
$1,000
$1,386
$5,000
$6,929
$10,000
$13,859
$100,000
$138,589
$1,000,000
$1,385,892
Inflation by spending category, 1950–1967
Between 1950 and 1967, medical care rose the most, up 86.8%, while apparel rose the least, up 26.6%, against 38.6% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1950
spending costs in 1967, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1950 →
All items (CPI-U)
1.94%
$139
Medical care
3.74%
$187
Transportation
2.28%
$147
Food
1.75%
$134
Apparel
1.39%
$127
Not shown because the BLS began these indexes after 1950: core (all items less food & energy) (1957–), energy (1957–), housing (1967–), recreation (1993–), education & communication (1993–).
Decade by decade: 1950 to 1967
Prices climbed fastest in the 1950s, averaging 2.08% a year, and slowest in the 1960s (1.74% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1950–1967 change:
Years
Avg. yearly inflation
Price change
$100 from 1950, at end
1950–1960
2.08%
22.8%
$123
1960–1967
1.74%
12.8%
$139
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1950
$100 from 1950 had already become $120 by
1958, on its way to $139 in 1967; each row shows the CPI, that
year's inflation rate, and the running value.
Within the span, inflation peaked at 7.9% in 1951, and prices fell 0.4% in 1955, the deepest deflation of the period.
In 1967, prices rose 3.1% and $100 from 1950 had the buying
power of $139; 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 1950 to 1967: $100 is worth $139 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1950-to-1967/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1950 to 1967. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1950-to-1967/