$100 in 1960 is worth $192 in 1976,
because prices increased 92.2% over that period, an average of
4.17% a year.
$100 in 1960 has
the same buying power as
$192
in 1976
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
92.2%
Average inflation rate
4.17% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$192
Price difference ($100 base)
$92.23
CPI in 1960
29.6
CPI in 1976
56.9
Inflation in 1960
1.72%
Inflation in 1976
5.76%
$100 in 1960 → 1976
$192
$100 in 1976 → 1960
$52.02
What happened to prices between 1960 and 1976
Between 1960 and 1976, the Consumer Price Index went from 29.6 to 56.9.
Cumulatively, prices increased 92.2%, which works out to an average of
4.17% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1960 bought what
$0.52 buys in 1976: the 1960 dollar
lost 48.0% of its purchasing power over
these 16 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 1976 at the same ratio, 1.92: $1,000 becomes
$1,922, and $10,000 becomes $19,223.
Amount in 1960
Value in 1976
$1.00
$1.92
$5.00
$9.61
$10.00
$19.22
$20.00
$38.45
$50.00
$96.11
$100
$192
$500
$961
$1,000
$1,922
$5,000
$9,611
$10,000
$19,223
$100,000
$192,230
$1,000,000
$1,922,297
Inflation by spending category, 1960–1976
Between 1960 and 1976, medical care rose the most, up 133.2%, while apparel rose the least, up 64.6%, against 92.2% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1960
spending costs in 1976, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1960 →
All items (CPI-U)
4.17%
$192
Medical care
5.43%
$233
Food
4.60%
$205
Energy
4.47%
$201
Core (all items less food & energy)
4.01%
$188
Transportation
3.92%
$185
Apparel
3.16%
$165
Not shown because the BLS began these indexes after 1960: housing (1967–), recreation (1993–), education & communication (1993–).
Decade by decade: 1960 to 1976
Prices climbed fastest in the 1970s, averaging 6.59% a year, and slowest in the 1960s (2.74% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1960–1976 change:
Years
Avg. yearly inflation
Price change
$100 from 1960, at end
1960–1970
2.74%
31.1%
$131
1970–1976
6.59%
46.6%
$192
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1960
$100 from 1960 had already become $118 by
1968, on its way to $192 in 1976; 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 1976, prices rose 5.8% and $100 from 1960 had the buying
power of $192; the year's average CPI of 56.9 is the level
behind every 1976 figure on this page.
Consumer prices rose 5.8% in 1976, the calmest pace since 1972,
as the economy pulled out of the 1973-75 recession and price growth settled
to roughly half its 1974 peak. The recovery gave Americans
room to celebrate: tall ships filled New York Harbor and fireworks lit cities
nationwide on July 4 for the country’s bicentennial, a rare moment of shared
celebration after Vietnam and Watergate. Politically, Jimmy Carter, a former
Georgia governor running as a Washington outsider, defeated incumbent Gerald
Ford that November, campaigning on restoring trust in government and bringing
down inflation and unemployment together. In a California garage, Steve
Jobs, Steve Wozniak, and Ronald Wayne founded Apple Computer that April to
sell the Apple I, a bare circuit board aimed at electronics hobbyists, a
business that looked far from consequential at the time. First-class
postage, which had risen to 13 cents that past December 31, held there
through the year, the longest stretch without a rate change since the Postal
Service’s creation. A median household earned $12,686 in 1976, a new home
sold for a median $44,200, and gas averaged 59 cents a gallon. Consumer
prices stood 474.7% above their 1913 level, a calm interlude
before inflation turned back up.
MLA: “Inflation from 1960 to 1976: $100 is worth $192 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1960-to-1976/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1960 to 1976. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1960-to-1976/