$100 in 1960 is worth $727 in 2008,
because prices increased 627.4% over that period, an average of
4.22% a year.
$100 in 1960 has
the same buying power as
$727
in 2008
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
627.4%
Average inflation rate
4.22% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$727
Price difference ($100 base)
$627
CPI in 1960
29.6
CPI in 2008
215.303
Inflation in 1960
1.72%
Inflation in 2008
3.84%
$100 in 1960 → 2008
$727
$100 in 2008 → 1960
$13.75
What happened to prices between 1960 and 2008
Between 1960 and 2008, the Consumer Price Index went from 29.6 to 215.303.
Cumulatively, prices increased 627.4%, which works out to an average of
4.22% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1960 bought what
$0.14 buys in 2008: the 1960 dollar
lost 86.3% of its purchasing power over
these 48 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 2008 at the same ratio, 7.27: $1,000 becomes
$7,274, and $10,000 becomes $72,738.
Amount in 1960
Value in 2008
$1.00
$7.27
$5.00
$36.37
$10.00
$72.74
$20.00
$145
$50.00
$364
$100
$727
$500
$3,637
$1,000
$7,274
$5,000
$36,369
$10,000
$72,738
$100,000
$727,375
$1,000,000
$7,273,750
Inflation by spending category, 1960–2008
Between 1960 and 2008, medical care rose the most, up 1532.6%, while apparel rose the least, up 160.2%, against 627.4% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1960
spending costs in 2008, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1960 →
All items (CPI-U)
4.22%
$727
Medical care
5.99%
$1,633
Energy
5.03%
$1,057
Food
4.18%
$714
Core (all items less food & energy)
4.15%
$704
Transportation
4.00%
$656
Apparel
2.01%
$260
Not shown because the BLS began these indexes after 1960: housing (1967–), recreation (1993–), education & communication (1993–).
Decade by decade: 1960 to 2008
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 1960–2008 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
2000–2008
2.83%
25.0%
$727
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1960
$100 from 1960 had already become $351 by
1984, on its way to $727 in 2008; 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: 2008
In 2008, prices rose 3.8% and $100 from 1960 had the buying
power of $727; the year's average CPI of 215.303 is the level
behind every 2008 figure on this page.
Inflation averaged 3.8% in 2008, but that figure hides a swing. The 12-month rate reached 5.6% in
July, when oil hit $147 a barrel and gasoline passed $4 a gallon, then fell to 0.1% by December
as crude dropped near $40. For the year, gas averaged $3.27, the highest yet. The financial
system broke in the fall: Lehman Brothers filed for bankruptcy on September 15, Congress
created the $700 billion TARP bank rescue on October 3, and the Federal Reserve cut its policy
rate to a range of 0–0.25% in December. The median household earned about $50,300, barely
above 2007, and the median new home price fell to $232,100. The minimum wage rose to $6.55 in
July, and a first-class stamp cost 42 cents. The price collapse at the end of 2008 set up the
deflation of 2009.
MLA: “Inflation from 1960 to 2008: $100 is worth $727 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1960-to-2008/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1960 to 2008. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1960-to-2008/