$100 in 1960 is worth $530 in 1996,
because prices increased 430.1% over that period, an average of
4.74% a year.
$100 in 1960 has
the same buying power as
$530
in 1996
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
430.1%
Average inflation rate
4.74% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$530
Price difference ($100 base)
$430
CPI in 1960
29.6
CPI in 1996
156.9
Inflation in 1960
1.72%
Inflation in 1996
2.95%
$100 in 1960 → 1996
$530
$100 in 1996 → 1960
$18.87
What happened to prices between 1960 and 1996
Between 1960 and 1996, the Consumer Price Index went from 29.6 to 156.9.
Cumulatively, prices increased 430.1%, which works out to an average of
4.74% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1960 bought what
$0.19 buys in 1996: the 1960 dollar
lost 81.1% of its purchasing power over
these 36 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 1996 at the same ratio, 5.30: $1,000 becomes
$5,301, and $10,000 becomes $53,007.
Amount in 1960
Value in 1996
$1.00
$5.30
$5.00
$26.50
$10.00
$53.01
$20.00
$106
$50.00
$265
$100
$530
$500
$2,650
$1,000
$5,301
$5,000
$26,503
$10,000
$53,007
$100,000
$530,068
$1,000,000
$5,300,676
Inflation by spending category, 1960–1996
Between 1960 and 1996, medical care rose the most, up 923.3%, while apparel rose the least, up 188.2%, against 430.1% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1960
spending costs in 1996, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1960 →
All items (CPI-U)
4.74%
$530
Medical care
6.67%
$1,023
Core (all items less food & energy)
4.80%
$541
Food
4.64%
$511
Energy
4.52%
$492
Transportation
4.45%
$480
Apparel
2.98%
$288
Not shown because the BLS began these indexes after 1960: housing (1967–), recreation (1993–), education & communication (1993–).
Decade by decade: 1960 to 1996
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 1960–1996 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
1990–1996
3.09%
20.0%
$530
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1960
$100 from 1960 had already become $220 by
1978, on its way to $530 in 1996; 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: 1996
In 1996, prices rose 3.0% and $100 from 1960 had the buying
power of $530; the year's average CPI of 156.9 is the level
behind every 1996 figure on this page.
The median household earned about $35,500 in 1996, gas averaged $1.23 a gallon, up noticeably
from the mid-decade lull, and a new home cost roughly $140,000. Inflation ran at 3.0% for the
year, ticking back up from 1995 as energy prices firmed. Washington passed two of the decade’s
more consequential laws that year: in February, the Telecommunications Act rewrote the rules for
phone, cable, and broadcast media for the first time since 1934, opening local markets to
competition and easing ownership limits; in August, a welfare overhaul ended the federal
guarantee of cash assistance, replacing it with block grants to states and time limits on
benefits. In October, the federal minimum wage rose to $4.75 an hour, its first increase in five
years and the opening step of a two-part law that would take it to $5.15 the following
September. Two sweeping new laws and a minimum wage finally on the move again made 1996 a year
that changed more about how the economy was governed than about how fast prices moved.
MLA: “Inflation from 1960 to 1996: $100 is worth $530 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1960-to-1996/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1960 to 1996. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1960-to-1996/