$100 in 1960 is worth $598 in 2001,
because prices increased 498.3% over that period, an average of
4.46% a year.
$100 in 1960 has
the same buying power as
$598
in 2001
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
498.3%
Average inflation rate
4.46% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$598
Price difference ($100 base)
$498
CPI in 1960
29.6
CPI in 2001
177.1
Inflation in 1960
1.72%
Inflation in 2001
2.85%
$100 in 1960 → 2001
$598
$100 in 2001 → 1960
$16.71
What happened to prices between 1960 and 2001
Between 1960 and 2001, the Consumer Price Index went from 29.6 to 177.1.
Cumulatively, prices increased 498.3%, which works out to an average of
4.46% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1960 bought what
$0.17 buys in 2001: the 1960 dollar
lost 83.3% of its purchasing power over
these 41 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 2001 at the same ratio, 5.98: $1,000 becomes
$5,983, and $10,000 becomes $59,831.
Amount in 1960
Value in 2001
$1.00
$5.98
$5.00
$29.92
$10.00
$59.83
$20.00
$120
$50.00
$299
$100
$598
$500
$2,992
$1,000
$5,983
$5,000
$29,916
$10,000
$59,831
$100,000
$598,311
$1,000,000
$5,983,108
Inflation by spending category, 1960–2001
Between 1960 and 2001, medical care rose the most, up 1123.3%, while apparel rose the least, up 178.6%, against 498.3% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1960
spending costs in 2001, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1960 →
All items (CPI-U)
4.46%
$598
Medical care
6.30%
$1,223
Core (all items less food & energy)
4.50%
$608
Energy
4.37%
$577
Food
4.37%
$577
Transportation
4.09%
$518
Apparel
2.53%
$279
Not shown because the BLS began these indexes after 1960: housing (1967–), recreation (1993–), education & communication (1993–).
Decade by decade: 1960 to 2001
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 1960–2001 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
2000–2001
2.85%
2.8%
$598
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1960
$100 from 1960 had already become $278 by
1980, on its way to $598 in 2001; 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: 2001
In 2001, prices rose 2.8% and $100 from 1960 had the buying
power of $598; the year's average CPI of 177.1 is the level
behind every 2001 figure on this page.
Inflation fell to 2.8% in 2001 from 3.4% the year before, as a recession that began in March
cut demand and gasoline slid to an average of $1.46 a gallon. The median household earned about
$42,200, roughly flat from 2000, and a new home cost about $175,200. The Federal Reserve cut its
policy rate 11 times over the year, from 6.5% to 1.75%, the lowest since 1961. After the
September 11 attacks, U.S. stock markets closed for four trading days, and air travel dropped
sharply until the following year. Congress had already passed a $1.35 trillion tax cut in June,
which included rebate checks of up to $600. The National Bureau of Economic Research dates the
recession’s end at November, but unemployment kept rising into 2003. A first-class stamp went to
34 cents in January, and the federal minimum wage stayed at $5.15. The Fed’s cuts were the
first step in a long period of very cheap borrowing that would fuel the housing boom.
MLA: “Inflation from 1960 to 2001: $100 is worth $598 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1960-to-2001/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1960 to 2001. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1960-to-2001/