$100 in 1950 is worth $144 in 1968,
because prices increased 44.4% over that period, an average of
2.06% a year.
$100 in 1950 has
the same buying power as
$144
in 1968
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
44.4%
Average inflation rate
2.06% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$144
Price difference ($100 base)
$44.40
CPI in 1950
24.1
CPI in 1968
34.8
Inflation in 1950
1.26%
Inflation in 1968
4.19%
$100 in 1950 → 1968
$144
$100 in 1968 → 1950
$69.25
What happened to prices between 1950 and 1968
Between 1950 and 1968, the Consumer Price Index went from 24.1 to 34.8.
Cumulatively, prices increased 44.4%, which works out to an average of
2.06% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1950 bought what
$0.69 buys in 1968: the 1950 dollar
lost 30.7% of its purchasing power over
these 18 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 1968 at the same ratio, 1.44: $1,000 becomes
$1,444, and $10,000 becomes $14,440.
Amount in 1950
Value in 1968
$1.00
$1.44
$5.00
$7.22
$10.00
$14.44
$20.00
$28.88
$50.00
$72.20
$100
$144
$500
$722
$1,000
$1,444
$5,000
$7,220
$10,000
$14,440
$100,000
$144,398
$1,000,000
$1,443,983
Inflation by spending category, 1950–1968
Between 1950 and 1968, medical care rose the most, up 98.0%, while apparel rose the least, up 33.3%, against 44.4% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1950
spending costs in 1968, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1950 →
All items (CPI-U)
2.06%
$144
Medical care
3.87%
$198
Transportation
2.32%
$151
Food
1.85%
$139
Apparel
1.61%
$133
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 1968
Prices climbed fastest in the 1950s, averaging 2.08% a year, and slowest in the 1960s (2.04% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1950–1968 change:
Years
Avg. yearly inflation
Price change
$100 from 1950, at end
1950–1960
2.08%
22.8%
$123
1960–1968
2.04%
17.6%
$144
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1950
$100 from 1950 had already become $121 by
1959, on its way to $144 in 1968; 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 1968, prices rose 4.2% and $100 from 1950 had the buying
power of $144; 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 1950 to 1968: $100 is worth $144 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1950-to-1968/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1950 to 1968. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1950-to-1968/