$100 in 1960 is worth $400 in 1988,
because prices increased 299.7% over that period, an average of
5.07% a year.
$100 in 1960 has
the same buying power as
$400
in 1988
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
299.7%
Average inflation rate
5.07% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$400
Price difference ($100 base)
$300
CPI in 1960
29.6
CPI in 1988
118.3
Inflation in 1960
1.72%
Inflation in 1988
4.14%
$100 in 1960 → 1988
$400
$100 in 1988 → 1960
$25.02
What happened to prices between 1960 and 1988
Between 1960 and 1988, the Consumer Price Index went from 29.6 to 118.3.
Cumulatively, prices increased 299.7%, which works out to an average of
5.07% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1960 bought what
$0.25 buys in 1988: the 1960 dollar
lost 75.0% of its purchasing power over
these 28 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 1988 at the same ratio, 4.00: $1,000 becomes
$3,997, and $10,000 becomes $39,966.
Amount in 1960
Value in 1988
$1.00
$4.00
$5.00
$19.98
$10.00
$39.97
$20.00
$79.93
$50.00
$200
$100
$400
$500
$1,998
$1,000
$3,997
$5,000
$19,983
$10,000
$39,966
$100,000
$399,662
$1,000,000
$3,996,622
Inflation by spending category, 1960–1988
Between 1960 and 1988, medical care rose the most, up 521.5%, while apparel rose the least, up 152.5%, against 299.7% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1960
spending costs in 1988, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1960 →
All items (CPI-U)
5.07%
$400
Medical care
6.74%
$622
Core (all items less food & energy)
5.11%
$403
Energy
5.06%
$399
Food
5.02%
$394
Transportation
4.73%
$365
Apparel
3.36%
$253
Not shown because the BLS began these indexes after 1960: housing (1967–), recreation (1993–), education & communication (1993–).
Decade by decade: 1960 to 1988
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 1960–1988 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
1980–1988
4.62%
43.6%
$400
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1960
$100 from 1960 had already become $167 by
1974, on its way to $400 in 1988; 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 1988, prices rose 4.1% and $100 from 1960 had the buying
power of $400; the year's average CPI of 118.3 is the level
behind every 1988 figure on this page.
By 1988, the economic expansion that began in the ashes of the 1981-82
recession was in its sixth year, and the Federal Reserve was watching for
signs it had run too long. Inflation rose to 4.1%, up from 3.6% the year
before, while unemployment fell to its lowest level since 1974. Alan
Greenspan’s Fed responded by raising the federal funds rate through the
year, from about 6.5% to 8.5%, trying to cool demand before prices
accelerated the way they had in the 1970s. Households still felt the
difference between this expansion and the last one: gas held near 90 cents
a gallon, almost exactly its 1987 price, and median household income rose
to roughly $27,200. The one price that moved was postage, which rose from
22 to 25 cents in April, the fourth increase of the decade but a far
gentler pace than the string of increases in the late 1970s and early
1980s. In November, Vice President George H.W. Bush won the presidency on
the strength of the expansion, promising in his nomination speech to hold
the line on taxes. Both the boom and that pledge would run into trouble
within two years, as the Fed’s rate increases helped tip the economy toward
the 1990-91 recession.
MLA: “Inflation from 1960 to 1988: $100 is worth $400 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1960-to-1988/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1960 to 1988. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1960-to-1988/