$100 in 1960 is worth $336 in 1983,
because prices increased 236.5% over that period, an average of
5.42% a year.
$100 in 1960 has
the same buying power as
$336
in 1983
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
236.5%
Average inflation rate
5.42% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$336
Price difference ($100 base)
$236
CPI in 1960
29.6
CPI in 1983
99.6
Inflation in 1960
1.72%
Inflation in 1983
3.21%
$100 in 1960 → 1983
$336
$100 in 1983 → 1960
$29.72
What happened to prices between 1960 and 1983
Between 1960 and 1983, the Consumer Price Index went from 29.6 to 99.6.
Cumulatively, prices increased 236.5%, which works out to an average of
5.42% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1960 bought what
$0.30 buys in 1983: the 1960 dollar
lost 70.3% of its purchasing power over
these 23 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 1983 at the same ratio, 3.36: $1,000 becomes
$3,365, and $10,000 becomes $33,649.
Amount in 1960
Value in 1983
$1.00
$3.36
$5.00
$16.82
$10.00
$33.65
$20.00
$67.30
$50.00
$168
$100
$336
$500
$1,682
$1,000
$3,365
$5,000
$16,824
$10,000
$33,649
$100,000
$336,486
$1,000,000
$3,364,865
Inflation by spending category, 1960–1983
Between 1960 and 1983, medical care rose the most, up 351.1%, while apparel rose the least, up 119.3%, against 236.5% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1960
spending costs in 1983, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1960 →
All items (CPI-U)
5.42%
$336
Medical care
6.77%
$451
Energy
6.72%
$446
Transportation
5.37%
$333
Food
5.35%
$331
Core (all items less food & energy)
5.27%
$325
Apparel
3.47%
$219
Not shown because the BLS began these indexes after 1960: housing (1967–), recreation (1993–), education & communication (1993–).
Decade by decade: 1960 to 1983
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 1960–1983 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
1980–1983
6.52%
20.9%
$336
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1960
$100 from 1960 had already become $137 by
1971, on its way to $336 in 1983; 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 1983, prices rose 3.2% and $100 from 1960 had the buying
power of $336; the year's average CPI of 99.6 is the level
behind every 1983 figure on this page.
1983 confirmed that the Volcker disinflation was not a one-year fluke.
Consumer prices rose 3.2% for the year, nearly identical to 1982’s pace and a
fraction of the double-digit rates of 1980 and 1981. With inflation tamed and
interest rates coming down, the economy roared back from the 1981-82
recession: real GDP grew 4.6%, the strongest calendar-year growth since the
1950s, and unemployment fell from its 10.8% peak to 8.3% by December. Housing
and auto sales, both starved of credit during the recession, led the
rebound. In April, Congress and President Reagan enacted the Social Security
Amendments of 1983, a bipartisan rescue of a system projected to run out of
money within months. The law gradually raised the full retirement age from
65 to 67, began taxing benefits for higher-income retirees, and delayed that
year’s cost-of-living adjustment by six months. For a program whose benefits
had been indexed to the CPI since 1975, the amendments were the first major
sign that inflation-proofing Social Security carried a cost Congress could
not simply legislate away. By year’s end, gas averaged $1.16 a gallon and
mailing a letter still cost 20 cents, prices that had barely moved since
1981, a sharp break from the constant increases of the previous decade.
MLA: “Inflation from 1960 to 1983: $100 is worth $336 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1960-to-1983/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1960 to 1983. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1960-to-1983/