$100 in 1960 is worth $488 in 1993,
because prices increased 388.2% over that period, an average of
4.92% a year.
$100 in 1960 has
the same buying power as
$488
in 1993
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
388.2%
Average inflation rate
4.92% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$488
Price difference ($100 base)
$388
CPI in 1960
29.6
CPI in 1993
144.5
Inflation in 1960
1.72%
Inflation in 1993
2.99%
$100 in 1960 → 1993
$488
$100 in 1993 → 1960
$20.48
What happened to prices between 1960 and 1993
Between 1960 and 1993, the Consumer Price Index went from 29.6 to 144.5.
Cumulatively, prices increased 388.2%, which works out to an average of
4.92% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1960 bought what
$0.20 buys in 1993: the 1960 dollar
lost 79.5% of its purchasing power over
these 33 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 1993 at the same ratio, 4.88: $1,000 becomes
$4,882, and $10,000 becomes $48,818.
Amount in 1960
Value in 1993
$1.00
$4.88
$5.00
$24.41
$10.00
$48.82
$20.00
$97.64
$50.00
$244
$100
$488
$500
$2,441
$1,000
$4,882
$5,000
$24,409
$10,000
$48,818
$100,000
$488,176
$1,000,000
$4,881,757
Inflation by spending category, 1960–1993
Between 1960 and 1993, medical care rose the most, up 803.1%, while apparel rose the least, up 192.6%, against 388.2% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1960
spending costs in 1993, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1960 →
All items (CPI-U)
4.92%
$488
Medical care
6.90%
$903
Core (all items less food & energy)
4.98%
$497
Food
4.80%
$470
Energy
4.77%
$465
Transportation
4.57%
$438
Apparel
3.31%
$293
Not shown because the BLS began these indexes after 1960: housing (1967–), recreation (1993–), education & communication (1993–).
Decade by decade: 1960 to 1993
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 1960–1993 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
1990–1993
3.40%
10.6%
$488
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1960
$100 from 1960 had already become $192 by
1976, on its way to $488 in 1993; 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: 1993
In 1993, prices rose 3.0% and $100 from 1960 had the buying
power of $488; the year's average CPI of 144.5 is the level
behind every 1993 figure on this page.
By 1993, the median household earned about $31,200, gas averaged $1.11 a gallon, and a new home
cost roughly $126,500. Inflation ran at 3.0% for the year, holding close to where it had settled
the year before as the recovery slowly gathered strength. Washington spent much of the year on
two pieces of unfinished business from the recession: a deficit-reduction package, the Omnibus
Budget Reconciliation Act, that raised the top income tax rate to 39.6% to start narrowing a
budget gap left over from the 1980s, and a trade deal, the North American Free Trade Agreement,
that President Clinton signed into law in December after a contentious fight in Congress. NAFTA
phased out most tariffs between the U.S., Mexico, and Canada and took effect the following
January. The year’s other defining event had nothing to do with the economy: in February, a bomb
exploded in the World Trade Center’s parking garage, killing six people and injuring more than a
thousand. By year’s end, the pieces of the decade’s later economic story, freer trade, a
shrinking deficit, and inflation holding near 3%, were already in place.
MLA: “Inflation from 1960 to 1993: $100 is worth $488 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1960-to-1993/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1960 to 1993. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1960-to-1993/