$100 in 1960 is worth $167 in 1974,
because prices increased 66.6% over that period, an average of
3.71% a year.
$100 in 1960 has
the same buying power as
$167
in 1974
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
66.6%
Average inflation rate
3.71% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$167
Price difference ($100 base)
$66.55
CPI in 1960
29.6
CPI in 1974
49.3
Inflation in 1960
1.72%
Inflation in 1974
11.04%
$100 in 1960 → 1974
$167
$100 in 1974 → 1960
$60.04
What happened to prices between 1960 and 1974
Between 1960 and 1974, the Consumer Price Index went from 29.6 to 49.3.
Cumulatively, prices increased 66.6%, which works out to an average of
3.71% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1960 bought what
$0.60 buys in 1974: the 1960 dollar
lost 40.0% of its purchasing power over
these 14 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 1974 at the same ratio, 1.67: $1,000 becomes
$1,666, and $10,000 becomes $16,655.
Amount in 1960
Value in 1974
$1.00
$1.67
$5.00
$8.33
$10.00
$16.66
$20.00
$33.31
$50.00
$83.28
$100
$167
$500
$833
$1,000
$1,666
$5,000
$8,328
$10,000
$16,655
$100,000
$166,554
$1,000,000
$1,665,541
Inflation by spending category, 1960–1974
Between 1960 and 1974, medical care rose the most, up 90.1%, while apparel rose the least, up 51.9%, against 66.6% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1960
spending costs in 1974, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1960 →
All items (CPI-U)
3.71%
$167
Medical care
4.70%
$190
Food
4.44%
$184
Energy
3.87%
$170
Core (all items less food & energy)
3.48%
$161
Transportation
3.12%
$154
Apparel
3.03%
$152
Not shown because the BLS began these indexes after 1960: housing (1967–), recreation (1993–), education & communication (1993–).
Decade by decade: 1960 to 1974
Prices climbed fastest in the 1970s, averaging 6.17% a year, and slowest in the 1960s (2.74% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1960–1974 change:
Years
Avg. yearly inflation
Price change
$100 from 1960, at end
1960–1970
2.74%
31.1%
$131
1970–1974
6.17%
27.1%
$167
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1960
$100 from 1960 had already become $113 by
1967, on its way to $167 in 1974; each row shows the CPI, that
year's inflation rate, and the running value.
Within the span, inflation peaked at 11.0% in 1974, and the smallest rise was 1.0% in 1962.
In 1974, prices rose 11.0% and $100 from 1960 had the buying
power of $167; the year's average CPI of 49.3 is the level
behind every 1974 figure on this page.
1974 was the year the postwar economy broke its old rules. Consumer prices
rose 11.0%, the fastest annual increase since 1947, as the Arab oil embargo
that ran from October 1973 to March 1974 roughly quadrupled the price of
crude oil worldwide. Gasoline, which had averaged 38.5 cents a gallon in
1973, jumped to 53.2 cents, and shortages forced many states into odd-even
rationing at the pump. Nixon’s wage and price controls, in place in some form
since 1971, expired at the end of April, removing the last brake on prices
just as the oil shock hit. Nixon himself resigned in August over Watergate,
and Gerald Ford’s response to inflation, a voluntary “Whip Inflation Now”
campaign built around lapel buttons, became a symbol of how little
conventional politics could do against the problem. Prices kept climbing even
as the economy weakened: a recession that started in November 1973 dragged
on, the Dow fell to a bear-market bottom of 577.60 in December, and
unemployment was already rising toward the 9% it would reach in 1975. The
combination of rising prices and a shrinking economy gave the decade its
name: stagflation.
MLA: “Inflation from 1960 to 1974: $100 is worth $167 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1960-to-1974/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1960 to 1974. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1960-to-1974/