$100 in 1960 is worth $220 in 1978,
because prices increased 120.3% over that period, an average of
4.48% a year.
$100 in 1960 has
the same buying power as
$220
in 1978
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
120.3%
Average inflation rate
4.48% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$220
Price difference ($100 base)
$120
CPI in 1960
29.6
CPI in 1978
65.2
Inflation in 1960
1.72%
Inflation in 1978
7.59%
$100 in 1960 → 1978
$220
$100 in 1978 → 1960
$45.40
What happened to prices between 1960 and 1978
Between 1960 and 1978, the Consumer Price Index went from 29.6 to 65.2.
Cumulatively, prices increased 120.3%, which works out to an average of
4.48% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1960 bought what
$0.45 buys in 1978: the 1960 dollar
lost 54.6% of its purchasing power over
these 18 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 1978 at the same ratio, 2.20: $1,000 becomes
$2,203, and $10,000 becomes $22,027.
Amount in 1960
Value in 1978
$1.00
$2.20
$5.00
$11.01
$10.00
$22.03
$20.00
$44.05
$50.00
$110
$100
$220
$500
$1,101
$1,000
$2,203
$5,000
$11,014
$10,000
$22,027
$100,000
$220,270
$1,000,000
$2,202,703
Inflation by spending category, 1960–1978
Between 1960 and 1978, medical care rose the most, up 177.1%, while apparel rose the least, up 78.1%, against 120.3% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1960
spending costs in 1978, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1960 →
All items (CPI-U)
4.48%
$220
Medical care
5.83%
$277
Food
4.98%
$240
Energy
4.85%
$234
Core (all items less food & energy)
4.32%
$214
Transportation
4.13%
$207
Apparel
3.26%
$178
Not shown because the BLS began these indexes after 1960: housing (1967–), recreation (1993–), education & communication (1993–).
Decade by decade: 1960 to 1978
Prices climbed fastest in the 1970s, averaging 6.70% a year, and slowest in the 1960s (2.74% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1960–1978 change:
Years
Avg. yearly inflation
Price change
$100 from 1960, at end
1960–1970
2.74%
31.1%
$131
1970–1978
6.70%
68.0%
$220
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1960
$100 from 1960 had already become $124 by
1969, on its way to $220 in 1978; 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 1978, prices rose 7.6% and $100 from 1960 had the buying
power of $220; the year's average CPI of 65.2 is the level
behind every 1978 figure on this page.
Consumer prices rose 7.6% in 1978, accelerating for a second straight year as
rising wages, a weakening dollar, and climbing energy costs outpaced the
Federal Reserve’s response. Fed chairman G. William Miller, appointed by
Carter that March, kept interest rates too low to slow the trend, a policy
later cited as one reason inflation kept building toward the following year’s
crisis. California voters responded to their own version of the problem that
June, passing Proposition 13 by nearly two to one to cap property tax rates
after years of rising home values had pushed tax bills up alongside them.
Foreign policy delivered one of the decade’s genuine breakthroughs: President
Carter brought Egyptian President Anwar Sadat and Israeli Prime Minister
Menachem Begin together for thirteen days of negotiations at Camp David that
September, producing a framework for peace between the two countries that was
signed as a treaty the following March. First-class postage rose to 15 cents
that May 29, a rate that would hold longer than any other in the decade. The
year ended in tragedy: cult leader Jim Jones directed the mass murder-suicide
of more than 900 followers at a remote settlement in Guyana that November 18.
A median household earned $15,064 in 1978, a new home sold for a median
$55,700, and gas averaged 63 cents a gallon. Consumer prices stood 558.6%
above their 1913 level, with the decade’s worst inflation
still to come.
MLA: “Inflation from 1960 to 1978: $100 is worth $220 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1960-to-1978/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1960 to 1978. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1960-to-1978/