$100 in 1960 is worth $582 in 2000,
because prices increased 481.8% over that period, an average of
4.50% a year.
$100 in 1960 has
the same buying power as
$582
in 2000
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
481.8%
Average inflation rate
4.50% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$582
Price difference ($100 base)
$482
CPI in 1960
29.6
CPI in 2000
172.2
Inflation in 1960
1.72%
Inflation in 2000
3.36%
$100 in 1960 → 2000
$582
$100 in 2000 → 1960
$17.19
What happened to prices between 1960 and 2000
Between 1960 and 2000, the Consumer Price Index went from 29.6 to 172.2.
Cumulatively, prices increased 481.8%, which works out to an average of
4.50% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1960 bought what
$0.17 buys in 2000: the 1960 dollar
lost 82.8% of its purchasing power over
these 40 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 2000 at the same ratio, 5.82: $1,000 becomes
$5,818, and $10,000 becomes $58,176.
Amount in 1960
Value in 2000
$1.00
$5.82
$5.00
$29.09
$10.00
$58.18
$20.00
$116
$50.00
$291
$100
$582
$500
$2,909
$1,000
$5,818
$5,000
$29,088
$10,000
$58,176
$100,000
$581,757
$1,000,000
$5,817,568
Inflation by spending category, 1960–2000
Between 1960 and 2000, medical care rose the most, up 1069.5%, while apparel rose the least, up 183.6%, against 481.8% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1960
spending costs in 2000, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1960 →
All items (CPI-U)
4.50%
$582
Medical care
6.34%
$1,170
Core (all items less food & energy)
4.55%
$592
Food
4.40%
$559
Energy
4.38%
$556
Transportation
4.18%
$514
Apparel
2.64%
$284
Not shown because the BLS began these indexes after 1960: housing (1967–), recreation (1993–), education & communication (1993–).
Decade by decade: 1960 to 2000
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 1960–2000 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
1990–2000
2.80%
31.8%
$582
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1960
$100 from 1960 had already become $278 by
1980, on its way to $582 in 2000; 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: 2000
In 2000, prices rose 3.4% and $100 from 1960 had the buying
power of $582; the year's average CPI of 172.2 is the level
behind every 2000 figure on this page.
Inflation ran at 3.4% in 2000, the highest annual rate since 1991, as an economy growing
above 4% and a rise in oil prices pushed the CPI up. The median household earned about
$42,100, gas averaged $1.51 a gallon, and a new home cost roughly $169,000. The Federal
Reserve had raised interest rates six times since mid-1999 and stopped at 6.5% in May. By
then the stock market had already turned: the Nasdaq hit its record of 5,048 on March 10 and
lost about 39% of its value by December. Consumer prices did not reflect the slowdown yet,
which is why the Fed held rates high through the year even as technology companies began to
fail. In October, Congress granted China permanent normal trade relations, a decision that
would help hold down the price of manufactured goods for years. A first-class stamp cost 33
cents and the federal minimum wage was $5.15. The recession of 2001 brought inflation back
down.
MLA: “Inflation from 1960 to 2000: $100 is worth $582 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1960-to-2000/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1960 to 2000. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1960-to-2000/