$100 in 1960 is worth $442 in 1990,
because prices increased 341.6% over that period, an average of
5.08% a year.
$100 in 1960 has
the same buying power as
$442
in 1990
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
341.6%
Average inflation rate
5.08% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$442
Price difference ($100 base)
$342
CPI in 1960
29.6
CPI in 1990
130.7
Inflation in 1960
1.72%
Inflation in 1990
5.40%
$100 in 1960 → 1990
$442
$100 in 1990 → 1960
$22.65
What happened to prices between 1960 and 1990
Between 1960 and 1990, the Consumer Price Index went from 29.6 to 130.7.
Cumulatively, prices increased 341.6%, which works out to an average of
5.08% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1960 bought what
$0.23 buys in 1990: the 1960 dollar
lost 77.4% of its purchasing power over
these 30 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 1990 at the same ratio, 4.42: $1,000 becomes
$4,416, and $10,000 becomes $44,155.
Amount in 1960
Value in 1990
$1.00
$4.42
$5.00
$22.08
$10.00
$44.16
$20.00
$88.31
$50.00
$221
$100
$442
$500
$2,208
$1,000
$4,416
$5,000
$22,078
$10,000
$44,155
$100,000
$441,554
$1,000,000
$4,415,541
Inflation by spending category, 1960–1990
Between 1960 and 1990, medical care rose the most, up 630.0%, while apparel rose the least, up 171.6%, against 341.6% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1960
spending costs in 1990, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1960 →
All items (CPI-U)
5.08%
$442
Medical care
6.85%
$730
Energy
5.19%
$456
Core (all items less food & energy)
5.08%
$443
Food
5.07%
$441
Transportation
4.77%
$404
Apparel
3.39%
$272
Not shown because the BLS began these indexes after 1960: housing (1967–), recreation (1993–), education & communication (1993–).
Decade by decade: 1960 to 1990
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 1960–1990 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
1980–1990
4.72%
58.6%
$442
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1960
$100 from 1960 had already become $182 by
1975, on its way to $442 in 1990; 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 1990, prices rose 5.4% and $100 from 1960 had the buying
power of $442; the year's average CPI of 130.7 is the level
behind every 1990 figure on this page.
In 1990, the median U.S. household earned about $29,900, gas averaged $1.15 a
gallon, and mailing a letter cost a quarter. Inflation ran hot at 5.4% for the
year, its highest rate since 1982, pushed up by an oil shock after Iraq’s
invasion of Kuwait, and the economy tipped into recession that summer. It was
the last gasp of elevated inflation before the long calm of the 1990s.
MLA: “Inflation from 1960 to 1990: $100 is worth $442 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1960-to-1990/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1960 to 1990. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1960-to-1990/