$100 in 1958 is worth $120 in 1968,
because prices increased 20.4% over that period, an average of
1.88% a year.
$100 in 1958 has
the same buying power as
$120
in 1968
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
20.4%
Average inflation rate
1.88% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$120
Price difference ($100 base)
$20.42
CPI in 1958
28.9
CPI in 1968
34.8
Inflation in 1958
2.85%
Inflation in 1968
4.19%
$100 in 1958 → 1968
$120
$100 in 1968 → 1958
$83.05
What happened to prices between 1958 and 1968
Between 1958 and 1968, the Consumer Price Index went from 28.9 to 34.8.
Cumulatively, prices increased 20.4%, which works out to an average of
1.88% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1958 bought what
$0.83 buys in 1968: the 1958 dollar
lost 17.0% of its purchasing power over
these 10 years.
Consumer prices rose 2.8% in 1958, down only slightly from
1957’s 3.3% even as the country sank into the sharpest
postwar recession to that point, an early sign that inflation and a
shrinking economy could coexist rather than trade off against each other.
The National Bureau of Economic Research dates the downturn’s trough to
that April, with unemployment peaking near 7.5% that summer, the worst
reading since the 1930s. The Post Office raised first-class postage to 4
cents that August 1, up from 3 cents, the rate’s first change since 1932.
Washington answered the Soviet Union’s technological lead that summer
too: Eisenhower signed the National Aeronautics and Space Act on July 29,
establishing NASA, which opened for business that October 1 to compete
with the Soviet space program after the shock of Sputnik the year before.
Consumer prices finished 1958 191.9% above their 1913
level. The minimum wage held at $1.00 an hour, and first-class postage
rose to 4 cents that August, the first increase since 1932.
Every 1958 amount converts to 1968 at the same ratio, 1.20: $1,000 becomes
$1,204, and $10,000 becomes $12,042.
Amount in 1958
Value in 1968
$1.00
$1.20
$5.00
$6.02
$10.00
$12.04
$20.00
$24.08
$50.00
$60.21
$100
$120
$500
$602
$1,000
$1,204
$5,000
$6,021
$10,000
$12,042
$100,000
$120,415
$1,000,000
$1,204,152
Inflation by spending category, 1958–1968
Between 1958 and 1968, medical care rose the most, up 45.1%, while energy rose the least, up 12.6%, against 20.4% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1958
spending costs in 1968, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1958 →
All items (CPI-U)
1.88%
$120
Medical care
3.80%
$145
Core (all items less food & energy)
2.06%
$123
Apparel
1.87%
$120
Transportation
1.83%
$120
Food
1.57%
$117
Energy
1.19%
$113
Not shown because the BLS began these indexes after 1958: housing (1967–), recreation (1993–), education & communication (1993–).
Decade by decade: 1958 to 1968
Prices climbed fastest in the 1960s, averaging 2.04% a year, and slowest in the 1950s (1.20% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1958–1968 change:
Years
Avg. yearly inflation
Price change
$100 from 1958, at end
1958–1960
1.20%
2.4%
$102
1960–1968
2.04%
17.6%
$120
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1958
$100 from 1958 had already become $106 by
1963, on its way to $120 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 the smallest rise was 0.7% in 1959.
In 1968, prices rose 4.2% and $100 from 1958 had the buying
power of $120; 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 1958 to 1968: $100 is worth $120 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1958-to-1968/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1958 to 1968. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1958-to-1968/