$100 in 1960 is worth $542 in 1997,
because prices increased 442.2% over that period, an average of
4.67% a year.
$100 in 1960 has
the same buying power as
$542
in 1997
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
442.2%
Average inflation rate
4.67% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$542
Price difference ($100 base)
$442
CPI in 1960
29.6
CPI in 1997
160.5
Inflation in 1960
1.72%
Inflation in 1997
2.29%
$100 in 1960 → 1997
$542
$100 in 1997 → 1960
$18.44
What happened to prices between 1960 and 1997
Between 1960 and 1997, the Consumer Price Index went from 29.6 to 160.5.
Cumulatively, prices increased 442.2%, which works out to an average of
4.67% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1960 bought what
$0.18 buys in 1997: the 1960 dollar
lost 81.6% of its purchasing power over
these 37 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 1997 at the same ratio, 5.42: $1,000 becomes
$5,422, and $10,000 becomes $54,223.
Amount in 1960
Value in 1997
$1.00
$5.42
$5.00
$27.11
$10.00
$54.22
$20.00
$108
$50.00
$271
$100
$542
$500
$2,711
$1,000
$5,422
$5,000
$27,111
$10,000
$54,223
$100,000
$542,230
$1,000,000
$5,422,297
Inflation by spending category, 1960–1997
Between 1960 and 1997, medical care rose the most, up 952.0%, while apparel rose the least, up 190.8%, against 442.2% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1960
spending costs in 1997, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1960 →
All items (CPI-U)
4.67%
$542
Medical care
6.57%
$1,052
Core (all items less food & energy)
4.74%
$554
Food
4.58%
$524
Energy
4.43%
$498
Transportation
4.36%
$484
Apparel
2.93%
$291
Not shown because the BLS began these indexes after 1960: housing (1967–), recreation (1993–), education & communication (1993–).
Decade by decade: 1960 to 1997
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 1960–1997 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
1990–1997
2.98%
22.8%
$542
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1960
$100 from 1960 had already become $220 by
1978, on its way to $542 in 1997; 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: 1997
In 1997, prices rose 2.3% and $100 from 1960 had the buying
power of $542; the year's average CPI of 160.5 is the level
behind every 1997 figure on this page.
The median household earned about $37,000 in 1997, gas averaged $1.23 a gallon, and a new home
cost roughly $146,000. Inflation ran at 2.3% for the year, its lowest reading since the
mid-1980s, as a strong dollar and falling import prices helped keep costs in check at home even
as trouble built abroad. In July, Thailand devalued the baht, and the currency collapse that
followed spread within months to Indonesia, South Korea, and other Southeast Asian economies,
forcing IMF bailouts and years of recession across the region, though the crisis had little
immediate effect on U.S. prices. At home, Washington had a calmer year: in August, President
Clinton and Congress agreed on the Balanced Budget Act and the Taxpayer Relief Act, which cut
capital gains tax rates, created the Roth IRA, and set the federal budget on a path to its first
surplus in nearly three decades. In September, the federal minimum wage completed a two-step
rise to $5.15 an hour, where it would stay for a decade. Low inflation, a firming budget picture,
and a crisis unfolding an ocean away made 1997 a year the U.S. economy looked stronger than much
of the rest of the world’s.
MLA: “Inflation from 1960 to 1997: $100 is worth $542 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1960-to-1997/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1960 to 1997. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1960-to-1997/