$100 in 1960 is worth $307 in 1981,
because prices increased 207.1% over that period, an average of
5.49% a year.
$100 in 1960 has
the same buying power as
$307
in 1981
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
207.1%
Average inflation rate
5.49% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$307
Price difference ($100 base)
$207
CPI in 1960
29.6
CPI in 1981
90.9
Inflation in 1960
1.72%
Inflation in 1981
10.32%
$100 in 1960 → 1981
$307
$100 in 1981 → 1960
$32.56
What happened to prices between 1960 and 1981
Between 1960 and 1981, the Consumer Price Index went from 29.6 to 90.9.
Cumulatively, prices increased 207.1%, which works out to an average of
5.49% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1960 bought what
$0.33 buys in 1981: the 1960 dollar
lost 67.4% of its purchasing power over
these 21 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 1981 at the same ratio, 3.07: $1,000 becomes
$3,071, and $10,000 becomes $30,709.
Amount in 1960
Value in 1981
$1.00
$3.07
$5.00
$15.35
$10.00
$30.71
$20.00
$61.42
$50.00
$154
$100
$307
$500
$1,535
$1,000
$3,071
$5,000
$15,355
$10,000
$30,709
$100,000
$307,095
$1,000,000
$3,070,946
Inflation by spending category, 1960–1981
Between 1960 and 1981, energy rose the most, up 336.2%, while apparel rose the least, up 108.5%, against 207.1% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1960
spending costs in 1981, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1960 →
All items (CPI-U)
5.49%
$307
Energy
7.27%
$436
Medical care
6.45%
$372
Transportation
5.58%
$313
Food
5.57%
$312
Core (all items less food & energy)
5.23%
$292
Apparel
3.56%
$209
Not shown because the BLS began these indexes after 1960: housing (1967–), recreation (1993–), education & communication (1993–).
Decade by decade: 1960 to 1981
Prices climbed fastest in the 1980s, averaging 10.32% a year, and slowest in the 1960s (2.74% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1960–1981 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
1980–1981
10.32%
10.3%
$307
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1960
$100 from 1960 had already become $131 by
1970, on its way to $307 in 1981; 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 1981, prices rose 10.3% and $100 from 1960 had the buying
power of $307; the year's average CPI of 90.9 is the level
behind every 1981 figure on this page.
1981 was the year the inflation fever finally broke, at an extraordinary price.
Consumer prices rose 10.3%, the second year of back-to-back double-digit
inflation and the last time the U.S. would see one. To end it, Paul Volcker’s
Federal Reserve drove its policy rate above 19% and let borrowing costs go
where they may: a 30-year mortgage cost more than 18% by autumn, car loans and
business credit froze, and homebuilders mailed the Fed two-by-fours in protest.
The squeeze tipped the economy into recession in July, the deep 1981–82
downturn that would push unemployment past 10%. But it worked. Inflation fell
by nearly half within a year and to under 4% by 1983, the disinflation that
defined the following two decades. Even the price of mailing a letter told the
year’s story: postage went up twice in eight months.
MLA: “Inflation from 1960 to 1981: $100 is worth $307 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1960-to-1981/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1960 to 1981. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1960-to-1981/