$100 in 1960 is worth $150 in 1973,
because prices increased 50.0% over that period, an average of
3.17% a year.
$100 in 1960 has
the same buying power as
$150
in 1973
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
50.0%
Average inflation rate
3.17% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$150
Price difference ($100 base)
$50.00
CPI in 1960
29.6
CPI in 1973
44.4
Inflation in 1960
1.72%
Inflation in 1973
6.22%
$100 in 1960 → 1973
$150
$100 in 1973 → 1960
$66.67
What happened to prices between 1960 and 1973
Between 1960 and 1973, the Consumer Price Index went from 29.6 to 44.4.
Cumulatively, prices increased 50.0%, which works out to an average of
3.17% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1960 bought what
$0.67 buys in 1973: the 1960 dollar
lost 33.3% of its purchasing power over
these 13 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 1973 at the same ratio, 1.50: $1,000 becomes
$1,500, and $10,000 becomes $15,000.
Amount in 1960
Value in 1973
$1.00
$1.50
$5.00
$7.50
$10.00
$15.00
$20.00
$30.00
$50.00
$75.00
$100
$150
$500
$750
$1,000
$1,500
$5,000
$7,500
$10,000
$15,000
$100,000
$150,000
$1,000,000
$1,500,000
Inflation by spending category, 1960–1973
Between 1960 and 1973, medical care rose the most, up 74.0%, while energy rose the least, up 31.3%, against 50.0% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1960
spending costs in 1973, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1960 →
All items (CPI-U)
3.17%
$150
Medical care
4.35%
$174
Food
3.71%
$161
Core (all items less food & energy)
3.12%
$149
Apparel
2.70%
$141
Transportation
2.52%
$138
Energy
2.11%
$131
Not shown because the BLS began these indexes after 1960: housing (1967–), recreation (1993–), education & communication (1993–).
Decade by decade: 1960 to 1973
Prices climbed fastest in the 1970s, averaging 4.60% a year, and slowest in the 1960s (2.74% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1960–1973 change:
Years
Avg. yearly inflation
Price change
$100 from 1960, at end
1960–1970
2.74%
31.1%
$131
1970–1973
4.60%
14.4%
$150
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1960
$100 from 1960 had already become $109 by
1966, on its way to $150 in 1973; each row shows the CPI, that
year's inflation rate, and the running value.
Within the span, inflation peaked at 6.2% in 1973, and the smallest rise was 1.0% in 1962.
In 1973, prices rose 6.2% and $100 from 1960 had the buying
power of $150; the year's average CPI of 44.4 is the level
behind every 1973 figure on this page.
Consumer prices rose 6.2% in 1973, nearly double 1972’s 3.2%,
as Nixon’s wage and price controls were phased out through the year and
pressure the controls had been holding back broke loose. The bigger shock
arrived that October, when Arab oil-producing states embargoed exports to the
United States and other supporters of Israel in the Yom Kippur War. Crude
oil, which had traded around $3 a barrel, approached $12 by early 1974, and
gas lines became a fixture outside filling stations nationwide. Earlier in
the year, the Paris Peace Accords, signed that January 27, ended direct
American combat in Vietnam and set a 60-day deadline for withdrawing
remaining U.S. troops, even as fighting between North and South Vietnam went
on. Financial markets read the year correctly as a turning point: the Dow
Jones Industrial Average peaked at 1,051.70 on January 11, a level it would
not reach again until 1980, before the oil shock and rising interest rates
dragged it into a two-year bear market. A median household earned $10,512 in
1973, a new home sold for a median $32,500, and gas averaged 38.5 cents a
gallon, still under half of what the embargo’s effects would bring the
following year. Consumer prices stood 348.5% above their
1913 level by year’s end, with the decade’s worst inflation
still ahead.
MLA: “Inflation from 1960 to 1973: $100 is worth $150 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1960-to-1973/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1960 to 1973. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1960-to-1973/