$100 in 1960 is worth $278 in 1980,
because prices increased 178.4% over that period, an average of
5.25% a year.
$100 in 1960 has
the same buying power as
$278
in 1980
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
178.4%
Average inflation rate
5.25% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$278
Price difference ($100 base)
$178
CPI in 1960
29.6
CPI in 1980
82.4
Inflation in 1960
1.72%
Inflation in 1980
13.50%
$100 in 1960 → 1980
$278
$100 in 1980 → 1960
$35.92
What happened to prices between 1960 and 1980
Between 1960 and 1980, the Consumer Price Index went from 29.6 to 82.4.
Cumulatively, prices increased 178.4%, which works out to an average of
5.25% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1960 bought what
$0.36 buys in 1980: the 1960 dollar
lost 64.1% of its purchasing power over
these 20 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 1980 at the same ratio, 2.78: $1,000 becomes
$2,784, and $10,000 becomes $27,838.
Amount in 1960
Value in 1980
$1.00
$2.78
$5.00
$13.92
$10.00
$27.84
$20.00
$55.68
$50.00
$139
$100
$278
$500
$1,392
$1,000
$2,784
$5,000
$13,919
$10,000
$27,838
$100,000
$278,378
$1,000,000
$2,783,784
Inflation by spending category, 1960–1980
Between 1960 and 1980, energy rose the most, up 283.9%, while apparel rose the least, up 98.9%, against 178.4% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1960
spending costs in 1980, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1960 →
All items (CPI-U)
5.25%
$278
Energy
6.96%
$384
Medical care
6.25%
$336
Food
5.46%
$289
Transportation
5.26%
$279
Core (all items less food & energy)
4.97%
$264
Apparel
3.50%
$199
Not shown because the BLS began these indexes after 1960: housing (1967–), recreation (1993–), education & communication (1993–).
Decade by decade: 1960 to 1980
Prices climbed fastest in the 1970s, averaging 7.82% a year, and slowest in the 1960s (2.74% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1960–1980 change:
Years
Avg. yearly inflation
Price change
$100 from 1960, at end
1960–1970
2.74%
31.1%
$131
1970–1980
7.82%
112.4%
$278
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1960
$100 from 1960 had already become $131 by
1970, on its way to $278 in 1980; each row shows the CPI, that
year's inflation rate, and the running value.
Within the span, inflation peaked at 13.5% in 1980, and the smallest rise was 1.0% in 1962.
In 1980, prices rose 13.5% and $100 from 1960 had the buying
power of $278; the year's average CPI of 82.4 is the level
behind every 1980 figure on this page.
1980 sat at the very peak of the Great Inflation. Prices rose 13.5% in that
single year, mortgage rates were climbing toward 16%, and the Federal Reserve
under Paul Volcker was administering the painful interest-rate medicine that
would finally break the inflationary spiral, at the cost of the deep 1981–82
recession. No single year looms larger in how Americans think about inflation.
MLA: “Inflation from 1960 to 1980: $100 is worth $278 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1960-to-1980/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1960 to 1980. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1960-to-1980/