$100 in 1951 is worth $134 in 1968,
because prices increased 33.8% over that period, an average of
1.73% a year.
$100 in 1951 has
the same buying power as
$134
in 1968
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
33.8%
Average inflation rate
1.73% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$134
Price difference ($100 base)
$33.85
CPI in 1951
26
CPI in 1968
34.8
Inflation in 1951
7.88%
Inflation in 1968
4.19%
$100 in 1951 → 1968
$134
$100 in 1968 → 1951
$74.71
What happened to prices between 1951 and 1968
Between 1951 and 1968, the Consumer Price Index went from 26 to 34.8.
Cumulatively, prices increased 33.8%, which works out to an average of
1.73% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1951 bought what
$0.75 buys in 1968: the 1951 dollar
lost 25.3% of its purchasing power over
these 17 years.
Consumer prices rose 7.9% in 1951, up sharply from 1950’s
1.3% and the fastest increase since 1947, as Korean War buying and a
defense spending surge hit an economy still adjusting to peacetime. Much
of the jump came early in the year, before the government stepped in: the
Office of Price Stabilization imposed a general ceiling on prices January
26, and the Wage Stabilization Board froze wages soon after, the broadest
peacetime controls since the war began that June. The year’s more lasting
change came in monetary policy. On March 4, the Treasury and the Federal
Reserve signed the Accord, ending the Fed’s wartime obligation to hold
down interest rates on government bonds and freeing the central bank to
fight inflation on its own terms for the first time since 1942, a shift
that would shape Fed independence for decades. Congress raised taxes that
October to help pay for the war: the Revenue Act of 1951, signed October
20, lifted individual and corporate income taxes along with a range of
excise taxes, the third increase in taxes since fighting began in Korea.
Consumer prices finished 1951 162.6% above their 1913
level. First-class postage held at 3 cents, and the minimum wage stayed at
75 cents an hour.
Every 1951 amount converts to 1968 at the same ratio, 1.34: $1,000 becomes
$1,338, and $10,000 becomes $13,385.
Amount in 1951
Value in 1968
$1.00
$1.34
$5.00
$6.69
$10.00
$13.38
$20.00
$26.77
$50.00
$66.92
$100
$134
$500
$669
$1,000
$1,338
$5,000
$6,692
$10,000
$13,385
$100,000
$133,846
$1,000,000
$1,338,462
Inflation by spending category, 1951–1968
Between 1951 and 1968, medical care rose the most, up 88.1%, while apparel rose the least, up 22.3%, against 33.8% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1951
spending costs in 1968, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1951 →
All items (CPI-U)
1.73%
$134
Medical care
3.78%
$188
Transportation
2.10%
$142
Food
1.33%
$125
Apparel
1.19%
$122
Not shown because the BLS began these indexes after 1951: core (all items less food & energy) (1957–), energy (1957–), housing (1967–), recreation (1993–), education & communication (1993–).
Decade by decade: 1951 to 1968
Prices climbed fastest in the 1960s, averaging 2.04% a year, and slowest in the 1950s (1.45% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1951–1968 change:
Years
Avg. yearly inflation
Price change
$100 from 1951, at end
1951–1960
1.45%
13.8%
$114
1960–1968
2.04%
17.6%
$134
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1951
$100 from 1951 had already become $112 by
1959, on its way to $134 in 1968; each row shows the CPI, that
year's inflation rate, and the running value.
Within the span, inflation peaked at 4.2% in 1968, and prices fell 0.4% in 1955, the deepest deflation of the period.
In 1968, prices rose 4.2% and $100 from 1951 had the buying
power of $134; 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 1951 to 1968: $100 is worth $134 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1951-to-1968/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1951 to 1968. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1951-to-1968/