$100 in 1960 is worth $326 in 1982,
because prices increased 226.0% over that period, an average of
5.52% a year.
$100 in 1960 has
the same buying power as
$326
in 1982
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
226.0%
Average inflation rate
5.52% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$326
Price difference ($100 base)
$226
CPI in 1960
29.6
CPI in 1982
96.5
Inflation in 1960
1.72%
Inflation in 1982
6.16%
$100 in 1960 → 1982
$326
$100 in 1982 → 1960
$30.67
What happened to prices between 1960 and 1982
Between 1960 and 1982, the Consumer Price Index went from 29.6 to 96.5.
Cumulatively, prices increased 226.0%, which works out to an average of
5.52% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1960 bought what
$0.31 buys in 1982: the 1960 dollar
lost 69.3% of its purchasing power over
these 22 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 1982 at the same ratio, 3.26: $1,000 becomes
$3,260, and $10,000 becomes $32,601.
Amount in 1960
Value in 1982
$1.00
$3.26
$5.00
$16.30
$10.00
$32.60
$20.00
$65.20
$50.00
$163
$100
$326
$500
$1,630
$1,000
$3,260
$5,000
$16,301
$10,000
$32,601
$100,000
$326,014
$1,000,000
$3,260,135
Inflation by spending category, 1960–1982
Between 1960 and 1982, energy rose the most, up 342.9%, while apparel rose the least, up 114.0%, against 226.0% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1960
spending costs in 1982, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1960 →
All items (CPI-U)
5.52%
$326
Energy
7.00%
$443
Medical care
6.68%
$415
Transportation
5.51%
$326
Food
5.50%
$325
Core (all items less food & energy)
5.32%
$313
Apparel
3.52%
$214
Not shown because the BLS began these indexes after 1960: housing (1967–), recreation (1993–), education & communication (1993–).
Decade by decade: 1960 to 1982
Prices climbed fastest in the 1980s, averaging 8.22% a year, and slowest in the 1960s (2.74% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1960–1982 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
1980–1982
8.22%
17.1%
$326
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1960
$100 from 1960 had already become $137 by
1971, on its way to $326 in 1982; 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 1982, prices rose 6.2% and $100 from 1960 had the buying
power of $326; the year's average CPI of 96.5 is the level
behind every 1982 figure on this page.
1982 was the hard bottom of the disinflation Paul Volcker had set in motion.
Consumer prices rose just 6.2% for the year, roughly half of 1981’s rate and a
fraction of the 13.5% peak from two years earlier. The price fell because
demand had been crushed: the recession that began in July 1981 did not
officially end until November 1982, and unemployment kept climbing even as
the economy technically began to recover, reaching 10.8% in November and
December, the highest rate since the Great Depression. Manufacturing and
construction, especially the auto and housing industries starved of credit by
double-digit interest rates, bore the worst of it. Abroad, Mexico’s August
announcement that it could not service its foreign debt opened a Latin
American debt crisis that spread across the region and forced the Federal
Reserve and IMF into emergency lending. The stress on the financial system
pushed Volcker to start easing interest rates that October, stepping back
from the strict money-supply targets he had followed since 1979. Markets read
the shift correctly: the Dow Jones Industrial Average bottomed at 776.92 in
mid-August, and the rally that followed became the opening leg of the 1980s
bull market. By year’s end, the trade-off Volcker had bet on was becoming
visible: much lower inflation, at the cost of the worst unemployment in 40
years.
MLA: “Inflation from 1960 to 1982: $100 is worth $326 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1960-to-1982/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1960 to 1982. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1960-to-1982/