$100 in 1960 is worth $474 in 1992,
because prices increased 374.0% over that period, an average of
4.98% a year.
$100 in 1960 has
the same buying power as
$474
in 1992
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
374.0%
Average inflation rate
4.98% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$474
Price difference ($100 base)
$374
CPI in 1960
29.6
CPI in 1992
140.3
Inflation in 1960
1.72%
Inflation in 1992
3.01%
$100 in 1960 → 1992
$474
$100 in 1992 → 1960
$21.10
What happened to prices between 1960 and 1992
Between 1960 and 1992, the Consumer Price Index went from 29.6 to 140.3.
Cumulatively, prices increased 374.0%, which works out to an average of
4.98% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1960 bought what
$0.21 buys in 1992: the 1960 dollar
lost 78.9% of its purchasing power over
these 32 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 1992 at the same ratio, 4.74: $1,000 becomes
$4,740, and $10,000 becomes $47,399.
Amount in 1960
Value in 1992
$1.00
$4.74
$5.00
$23.70
$10.00
$47.40
$20.00
$94.80
$50.00
$237
$100
$474
$500
$2,370
$1,000
$4,740
$5,000
$23,699
$10,000
$47,399
$100,000
$473,986
$1,000,000
$4,739,865
Inflation by spending category, 1960–1992
Between 1960 and 1992, medical care rose the most, up 752.5%, while apparel rose the least, up 188.6%, against 374.0% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1960
spending costs in 1992, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1960 →
All items (CPI-U)
4.98%
$474
Medical care
6.93%
$852
Core (all items less food & energy)
5.03%
$481
Energy
4.88%
$460
Food
4.88%
$460
Transportation
4.62%
$424
Apparel
3.37%
$289
Not shown because the BLS began these indexes after 1960: housing (1967–), recreation (1993–), education & communication (1993–).
Decade by decade: 1960 to 1992
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 1960–1992 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
1990–1992
3.61%
7.3%
$474
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1960
$100 from 1960 had already become $192 by
1976, on its way to $474 in 1992; 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.
Long periods are sampled every 2 years; the calculator above covers any pair of years.
The destination year: 1992
In 1992, prices rose 3.0% and $100 from 1960 had the buying
power of $474; the year's average CPI of 140.3 is the level
behind every 1992 figure on this page.
1992 was the year the recovery finally showed up in the numbers, if not yet in hiring. The
median household earned about $30,600, gas averaged $1.13 a gallon, and a new home cost roughly
$121,500. Inflation ran at 3.0% for the year, its calmest reading since the mid-1980s, as energy
prices stayed well below their 1990 peak and a slack labor market kept a lid on wages and prices
alike. The Federal Reserve kept cutting its policy rate through the year, reaching about 3% by
September, the lowest in decades, trying to jump-start hiring more than a year after the 1990-91
recession officially ended. The sluggish job market became the defining issue of the November
election, and Bill Clinton unseated incumbent George H.W. Bush, whose approval ratings had
fallen sharply from their post-Gulf War highs. In August, Hurricane Andrew tore through South
Florida, the costliest U.S. hurricane on record at the time, causing tens of billions of dollars
in damage and reshaping how insurers priced catastrophe risk for years afterward. Falling rates,
a costly hurricane, and an election fought over jobs defined a recovery that showed up in the
data well before it showed up in most paychecks.
MLA: “Inflation from 1960 to 1992: $100 is worth $474 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1960-to-1992/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1960 to 1992. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1960-to-1992/