$100 in 1960 is worth $205 in 1977,
because prices increased 104.7% over that period, an average of
4.30% a year.
$100 in 1960 has
the same buying power as
$205
in 1977
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
104.7%
Average inflation rate
4.30% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$205
Price difference ($100 base)
$105
CPI in 1960
29.6
CPI in 1977
60.6
Inflation in 1960
1.72%
Inflation in 1977
6.50%
$100 in 1960 → 1977
$205
$100 in 1977 → 1960
$48.84
What happened to prices between 1960 and 1977
Between 1960 and 1977, the Consumer Price Index went from 29.6 to 60.6.
Cumulatively, prices increased 104.7%, which works out to an average of
4.30% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1960 bought what
$0.49 buys in 1977: the 1960 dollar
lost 51.2% of its purchasing power over
these 17 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 1977 at the same ratio, 2.05: $1,000 becomes
$2,047, and $10,000 becomes $20,473.
Amount in 1960
Value in 1977
$1.00
$2.05
$5.00
$10.24
$10.00
$20.47
$20.00
$40.95
$50.00
$102
$100
$205
$500
$1,024
$1,000
$2,047
$5,000
$10,236
$10,000
$20,473
$100,000
$204,730
$1,000,000
$2,047,297
Inflation by spending category, 1960–1977
Between 1960 and 1977, medical care rose the most, up 155.6%, while apparel rose the least, up 72.0%, against 104.7% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1960
spending costs in 1977, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1960 →
All items (CPI-U)
4.30%
$205
Medical care
5.68%
$256
Energy
4.76%
$221
Food
4.70%
$218
Core (all items less food & energy)
4.14%
$199
Transportation
4.10%
$198
Apparel
3.24%
$172
Not shown because the BLS began these indexes after 1960: housing (1967–), recreation (1993–), education & communication (1993–).
Decade by decade: 1960 to 1977
Prices climbed fastest in the 1970s, averaging 6.58% a year, and slowest in the 1960s (2.74% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1960–1977 change:
Years
Avg. yearly inflation
Price change
$100 from 1960, at end
1960–1970
2.74%
31.1%
$131
1970–1977
6.58%
56.2%
$205
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1960
$100 from 1960 had already become $118 by
1968, on its way to $205 in 1977; 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 1977, prices rose 6.5% and $100 from 1960 had the buying
power of $205; the year's average CPI of 60.6 is the level
behind every 1977 figure on this page.
Consumer prices rose 6.5% in 1977, ticking back up from 1976’s
5.8% as the economic recovery strengthened, wages climbed, and energy costs
pushed higher again. The year opened with a warning about that energy
dependence: record cold across the Midwest and Northeast in January and
February strained natural gas supplies so badly that schools and factories in
several states shut down for days to conserve fuel. Jimmy Carter, inaugurated
that January, made energy policy a centerpiece of his presidency, and
Congress created the cabinet-level Department of Energy that August to
consolidate programs built up piecemeal since the 1973 oil embargo. Culture
offered some relief from the anxiety: released that May, Star Wars became the
highest-grossing film in history to that point, drawing lines around theater
blocks for months. The year also closed an era in a different way. Elvis
Presley was found dead at his Graceland home on August 16 at age 42, drawing
tens of thousands of mourners to Memphis. A median household earned $13,572
in 1977, a new home sold for a median $48,800, and gas averaged 62 cents a
gallon. Consumer prices stood 512.1% above their 1913 level,
with the energy anxieties of the year setting up the harder shocks of 1978
and 1979.
MLA: “Inflation from 1960 to 1977: $100 is worth $205 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1960-to-1977/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1960 to 1977. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1960-to-1977/