$100 in 1960 is worth $137 in 1971,
because prices increased 36.8% over that period, an average of
2.89% a year.
$100 in 1960 has
the same buying power as
$137
in 1971
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
36.8%
Average inflation rate
2.89% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$137
Price difference ($100 base)
$36.82
CPI in 1960
29.6
CPI in 1971
40.5
Inflation in 1960
1.72%
Inflation in 1971
4.38%
$100 in 1960 → 1971
$137
$100 in 1971 → 1960
$73.09
What happened to prices between 1960 and 1971
Between 1960 and 1971, the Consumer Price Index went from 29.6 to 40.5.
Cumulatively, prices increased 36.8%, which works out to an average of
2.89% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1960 bought what
$0.73 buys in 1971: the 1960 dollar
lost 26.9% of its purchasing power over
these 11 years.
Consumer prices rose 1.7% in 1960, up from 1959’s 0.7% even
as the economy slipped into recession that April, a downturn that would
prove the shortest since World War II. The year’s defining political
moment came that November, when John F. Kennedy narrowly defeated Richard
Nixon in one of the closest presidential elections in U.S. history,
decided by roughly two-tenths of a percentage point in the popular vote.
Television played a new role in the race: the first-ever televised
presidential debate that September, watched by an estimated 70 million
people, was widely seen as favoring the telegenic Kennedy. Civil rights
protest took a new form that February, when four Black freshmen at North
Carolina A&T State University sat down at a whites-only Woolworth’s lunch
counter in Greensboro and refused to leave; the sit-in tactic spread to
dozens of Southern cities within weeks. Cold War tensions flared that May,
when a Soviet missile downed an American U-2 spy plane deep inside Soviet
airspace. The pilot, Francis Gary Powers, was captured alive, embarrassing
the Eisenhower administration and collapsing a Paris summit called to ease
relations with Moscow. Consumer prices finished 1960 199.0% above their
1913 level. First-class postage held at 4 cents, and the
minimum wage stayed at $1.00 an hour.
Every 1960 amount converts to 1971 at the same ratio, 1.37: $1,000 becomes
$1,368, and $10,000 becomes $13,682.
Amount in 1960
Value in 1971
$1.00
$1.37
$5.00
$6.84
$10.00
$13.68
$20.00
$27.36
$50.00
$68.41
$100
$137
$500
$684
$1,000
$1,368
$5,000
$6,841
$10,000
$13,682
$100,000
$136,824
$1,000,000
$1,368,243
Inflation by spending category, 1960–1971
Between 1960 and 1971, medical care rose the most, up 61.9%, while energy rose the least, up 18.3%, against 36.8% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1960
spending costs in 1971, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1960 →
All items (CPI-U)
2.89%
$137
Medical care
4.48%
$162
Core (all items less food & energy)
3.08%
$140
Food
2.74%
$135
Apparel
2.68%
$134
Transportation
2.59%
$133
Energy
1.54%
$118
Not shown because the BLS began these indexes after 1960: housing (1967–), recreation (1993–), education & communication (1993–).
Decade by decade: 1960 to 1971
Prices climbed fastest in the 1970s, averaging 4.38% a year, and slowest in the 1960s (2.74% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1960–1971 change:
Years
Avg. yearly inflation
Price change
$100 from 1960, at end
1960–1970
2.74%
31.1%
$131
1970–1971
4.38%
4.4%
$137
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1960
$100 from 1960 had already become $106 by
1965, on its way to $137 in 1971; each row shows the CPI, that
year's inflation rate, and the running value.
Within the span, inflation peaked at 5.7% in 1970, and the smallest rise was 1.0% in 1962.
In 1971, prices rose 4.4% and $100 from 1960 had the buying
power of $137; the year's average CPI of 40.5 is the level
behind every 1971 figure on this page.
Consumer prices rose 4.4% in 1971, down from 1970’s 5.7% as
the recession that started in December 1969 finally cooled demand. The bigger
economic story came that August 15, when President Nixon closed the “gold
window” that let foreign governments exchange dollars for gold, ending the
Bretton Woods system that had anchored the dollar since World War II. The
same address announced a 90-day freeze on wages and prices, the first
peacetime controls the country had seen, an attempt to break inflationary
expectations without the slower grind of tighter money. The “Nixon Shock,” as
it came to be known, let the dollar float against other currencies for the
first time and set the stage for a wage-and-price-control regime that would
run in various forms into 1973. Politically, the country lowered its voting
age that year: the 26th Amendment, ratified July 1, extended the vote to
18-year-olds, capping a campaign built on the argument that men old enough to
be drafted to Vietnam were old enough to vote for the people who sent them.
The Postal Service, independent since 1970’s reorganization, raised
first-class postage from 6 to 8 cents that May. A median household earned
$9,028 in 1971, up from $8,734 the year before, while gas held near 36 cents
a gallon and a new home sold for a median $25,200. Consumer prices stood
309.1% above their 1913 level by year’s end, still years away
from the double-digit inflation the controls were meant to prevent.
MLA: “Inflation from 1960 to 1971: $100 is worth $137 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1960-to-1971/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1960 to 1971. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1960-to-1971/