$100 in 1960 is worth $370 in 1986,
because prices increased 270.3% over that period, an average of
5.16% a year.
$100 in 1960 has
the same buying power as
$370
in 1986
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
270.3%
Average inflation rate
5.16% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$370
Price difference ($100 base)
$270
CPI in 1960
29.6
CPI in 1986
109.6
Inflation in 1960
1.72%
Inflation in 1986
1.86%
$100 in 1960 → 1986
$370
$100 in 1986 → 1960
$27.01
What happened to prices between 1960 and 1986
Between 1960 and 1986, the Consumer Price Index went from 29.6 to 109.6.
Cumulatively, prices increased 270.3%, which works out to an average of
5.16% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1960 bought what
$0.27 buys in 1986: the 1960 dollar
lost 73.0% of its purchasing power over
these 26 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 1986 at the same ratio, 3.70: $1,000 becomes
$3,703, and $10,000 becomes $37,027.
Amount in 1960
Value in 1986
$1.00
$3.70
$5.00
$18.51
$10.00
$37.03
$20.00
$74.05
$50.00
$185
$100
$370
$500
$1,851
$1,000
$3,703
$5,000
$18,514
$10,000
$37,027
$100,000
$370,270
$1,000,000
$3,702,703
Inflation by spending category, 1960–1986
Between 1960 and 1986, medical care rose the most, up 447.1%, while apparel rose the least, up 131.7%, against 270.3% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1960
spending costs in 1986, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1960 →
All items (CPI-U)
5.16%
$370
Medical care
6.75%
$547
Energy
5.41%
$394
Core (all items less food & energy)
5.17%
$371
Food
5.09%
$363
Transportation
4.86%
$343
Apparel
3.29%
$232
Not shown because the BLS began these indexes after 1960: housing (1967–), recreation (1993–), education & communication (1993–).
Decade by decade: 1960 to 1986
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 1960–1986 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
1980–1986
4.87%
33.0%
$370
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1960
$100 from 1960 had already become $150 by
1973, on its way to $370 in 1986; 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 1986, prices rose 1.9% and $100 from 1960 had the buying
power of $370; the year's average CPI of 109.6 is the level
behind every 1986 figure on this page.
1986 delivered the decade’s biggest one-year drop in inflation, and it came
almost entirely from a single source: oil. Saudi Arabia abandoned its policy
of restraining output to prop up prices, and world crude collapsed from
about $27 a barrel to under $10 by midyear. Gasoline, which had averaged
$1.12 a gallon in 1985, fell to 86 cents. With energy costs plunging,
headline CPI inflation for the year came in at just 1.9%, the lowest annual
rate since 1965 and a striking bookend to 1980’s 13.5% peak. The relief was
uneven: prices for most goods and services outside energy kept rising at a
moderate pace, so households that didn’t drive much or heat with oil felt
less of the difference. In October, Congress passed the Tax Reform Act of
1986, a bipartisan overhaul that cut the top individual income tax rate from
50% to 28% while closing many deductions and shelters, the broadest rewrite
of the federal tax code since World War II. Between cheap gas and falling
interest rates, 1986 read like proof that the inflationary 1970s were a
closed chapter, six years after the U.S. economy had felt anything but
calm.
MLA: “Inflation from 1960 to 1986: $100 is worth $370 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1960-to-1986/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1960 to 1986. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1960-to-1986/