$100 in 1960 is worth $563 in 1999,
because prices increased 462.8% over that period, an average of
4.53% a year.
$100 in 1960 has
the same buying power as
$563
in 1999
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
462.8%
Average inflation rate
4.53% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$563
Price difference ($100 base)
$463
CPI in 1960
29.6
CPI in 1999
166.6
Inflation in 1960
1.72%
Inflation in 1999
2.21%
$100 in 1960 → 1999
$563
$100 in 1999 → 1960
$17.77
What happened to prices between 1960 and 1999
Between 1960 and 1999, the Consumer Price Index went from 29.6 to 166.6.
Cumulatively, prices increased 462.8%, which works out to an average of
4.53% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1960 bought what
$0.18 buys in 1999: the 1960 dollar
lost 82.2% of its purchasing power over
these 39 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 1999 at the same ratio, 5.63: $1,000 becomes
$5,628, and $10,000 becomes $56,284.
Amount in 1960
Value in 1999
$1.00
$5.63
$5.00
$28.14
$10.00
$56.28
$20.00
$113
$50.00
$281
$100
$563
$500
$2,814
$1,000
$5,628
$5,000
$28,142
$10,000
$56,284
$100,000
$562,838
$1,000,000
$5,628,378
Inflation by spending category, 1960–1999
Between 1960 and 1999, medical care rose the most, up 1023.8%, while apparel rose the least, up 187.3%, against 462.8% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1960
spending costs in 1999, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1960 →
All items (CPI-U)
4.53%
$563
Medical care
6.40%
$1,124
Core (all items less food & energy)
4.60%
$578
Food
4.45%
$547
Transportation
4.13%
$485
Energy
4.08%
$476
Apparel
2.74%
$287
Not shown because the BLS began these indexes after 1960: housing (1967–), recreation (1993–), education & communication (1993–).
Decade by decade: 1960 to 1999
Prices climbed fastest in the 1970s, averaging 7.82% a year, and slowest in the 1990s (2.73% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1960–1999 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
1990–1999
2.73%
27.5%
$563
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1960
$100 from 1960 had already become $278 by
1980, on its way to $563 in 1999; 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: 1999
In 1999, prices rose 2.2% and $100 from 1960 had the buying
power of $563; the year's average CPI of 166.6 is the level
behind every 1999 figure on this page.
The median household earned about $40,700 in 1999, gas averaged $1.17 a gallon, and a new home
cost roughly $161,000. Inflation ran at 2.2% for the year, ticking back up from 1998’s decade low
as oil prices recovered from their collapse. The decade closed with two changes to the financial
system that would shape the one after it: on January 1, the euro launched as an accounting
currency across 11 European countries, trading alongside national currencies like the French
franc and German mark ahead of physical cash in 2002, and in November, Congress passed the
Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act, tearing down the Depression-era wall between commercial banks, investment
banks, and insurers. Stock markets, meanwhile, were absorbed in a boom of their own: the Nasdaq
surged through the year on soaring internet-stock valuations, and the Federal Reserve raised
interest rates three times in the second half of 1999 partly to cool the exuberance, even as it
pumped extra liquidity into the banking system to guard against any disruption from the Y2K
rollover. A first-class stamp cost 33 cents. Inflation had spent the decade falling from 1990’s
5.4% peak to averages closer to 2-3%, and 1999 closed it out almost exactly where the 1990s as a
whole had settled.
MLA: “Inflation from 1960 to 1999: $100 is worth $563 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1960-to-1999/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1960 to 1999. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1960-to-1999/