$100 in 1960 is worth $608 in 2002,
because prices increased 507.8% over that period, an average of
4.39% a year.
$100 in 1960 has
the same buying power as
$608
in 2002
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
507.8%
Average inflation rate
4.39% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$608
Price difference ($100 base)
$508
CPI in 1960
29.6
CPI in 2002
179.9
Inflation in 1960
1.72%
Inflation in 2002
1.58%
$100 in 1960 → 2002
$608
$100 in 2002 → 1960
$16.45
What happened to prices between 1960 and 2002
Between 1960 and 2002, the Consumer Price Index went from 29.6 to 179.9.
Cumulatively, prices increased 507.8%, which works out to an average of
4.39% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1960 bought what
$0.16 buys in 2002: the 1960 dollar
lost 83.5% of its purchasing power over
these 42 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 2002 at the same ratio, 6.08: $1,000 becomes
$6,078, and $10,000 becomes $60,777.
Amount in 1960
Value in 2002
$1.00
$6.08
$5.00
$30.39
$10.00
$60.78
$20.00
$122
$50.00
$304
$100
$608
$500
$3,039
$1,000
$6,078
$5,000
$30,389
$10,000
$60,777
$100,000
$607,770
$1,000,000
$6,077,703
Inflation by spending category, 1960–2002
Between 1960 and 2002, medical care rose the most, up 1180.7%, while apparel rose the least, up 171.3%, against 507.8% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1960
spending costs in 2002, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1960 →
All items (CPI-U)
4.39%
$608
Medical care
6.26%
$1,281
Core (all items less food & energy)
4.45%
$623
Food
4.31%
$587
Energy
4.11%
$543
Transportation
3.97%
$513
Apparel
2.41%
$271
Not shown because the BLS began these indexes after 1960: housing (1967–), recreation (1993–), education & communication (1993–).
Decade by decade: 1960 to 2002
Prices climbed fastest in the 1970s, averaging 7.82% a year, and slowest in the 2000s (2.21% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1960–2002 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
2000–2002
2.21%
4.5%
$608
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1960
$100 from 1960 had already become $278 by
1980, on its way to $608 in 2002; 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: 2002
In 2002, prices rose 1.6% and $100 from 1960 had the buying
power of $608; the year's average CPI of 179.9 is the level
behind every 2002 figure on this page.
The CPI rose 1.6% in 2002, the lowest annual rate of the decade so far, with gasoline down to an
average of $1.36 a gallon and slack in the labor market keeping wage pressure low. The median
household earned about $42,400, and a new home cost roughly $187,600, an increase of about 7%
from the year before as low mortgage rates began to lift housing. The Federal Reserve cut its
policy rate to 1.25% in November. Stocks were moving the other way: after the Enron and WorldCom
scandals, the S&P 500 hit its bear-market low on October 9, about 49% below its March 2000
peak, and Congress passed the Sarbanes-Oxley Act in July to tighten corporate accounting rules.
On January 1, euro banknotes and coins replaced national currencies in 12 European countries. A
first-class stamp rose to 37 cents in June, and the federal minimum wage stayed at $5.15.
MLA: “Inflation from 1960 to 2002: $100 is worth $608 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1960-to-2002/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1960 to 2002. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1960-to-2002/