$100 in 1960 is worth $800 in 2014,
because prices increased 699.8% over that period, an average of
3.93% a year.
$100 in 1960 has
the same buying power as
$800
in 2014
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
699.8%
Average inflation rate
3.93% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$800
Price difference ($100 base)
$700
CPI in 1960
29.6
CPI in 2014
236.736
Inflation in 1960
1.72%
Inflation in 2014
1.62%
$100 in 1960 → 2014
$800
$100 in 2014 → 1960
$12.50
What happened to prices between 1960 and 2014
Between 1960 and 2014, the Consumer Price Index went from 29.6 to 236.736.
Cumulatively, prices increased 699.8%, which works out to an average of
3.93% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1960 bought what
$0.13 buys in 2014: the 1960 dollar
lost 87.5% of its purchasing power over
these 54 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 2014 at the same ratio, 8.00: $1,000 becomes
$7,998, and $10,000 becomes $79,978.
Amount in 1960
Value in 2014
$1.00
$8.00
$5.00
$39.99
$10.00
$79.98
$20.00
$160
$50.00
$400
$100
$800
$500
$3,999
$1,000
$7,998
$5,000
$39,989
$10,000
$79,978
$100,000
$799,784
$1,000,000
$7,997,838
Inflation by spending category, 1960–2014
Between 1960 and 2014, medical care rose the most, up 1852.0%, while apparel rose the least, up 179.0%, against 699.8% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1960
spending costs in 2014, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1960 →
All items (CPI-U)
3.93%
$800
Medical care
5.66%
$1,952
Energy
4.52%
$1,087
Food
3.95%
$809
Core (all items less food & energy)
3.87%
$777
Transportation
3.74%
$725
Apparel
1.92%
$279
Not shown because the BLS began these indexes after 1960: housing (1967–), recreation (1993–), education & communication (1993–).
Decade by decade: 1960 to 2014
Prices climbed fastest in the 1970s, averaging 7.82% a year, and slowest in the 2010s (2.08% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1960–2014 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
2000–2010
2.39%
26.6%
$737
2010–2014
2.08%
8.6%
$800
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1960
$100 from 1960 had already become $370 by
1986, on its way to $800 in 2014; 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 prices fell 0.4% in 2009, the deepest deflation of the period.
Long periods are sampled every 2 years; the calculator above covers any pair of years.
The destination year: 2014
In 2014, prices rose 1.6% and $100 from 1960 had the buying
power of $800; the year's average CPI of 236.736 is the level
behind every 2014 figure on this page.
2014 ended with the sharpest oil price drop in years. Consumer prices rose
1.6% for the year, close to 2013’s pace, but the annual figure hid a shift at
the pump: crude oil fell from above $100 a barrel in June to below $60 in
December, and gasoline finished the year near $2.25 a gallon after averaging
$3.37 across 2014. The drop reflected record U.S. shale output, softer
global demand, and OPEC’s decision in November to keep producing.
For households, cheaper fuel arrived just as the labor market strengthened.
Median household income was $53,657, essentially flat on the prior year, and
the median new home sold for about $288,500. The federal minimum wage stayed
at $7.25 for a fifth year, and a first-class stamp rose to 49 cents.
The Federal Reserve ended its bond purchases in October but left its policy
rate at zero. A stronger dollar helped hold down import prices. Because
energy weighs heavily in the CPI, the late-year slide carried into 2015, which
posted the smallest annual increase of the decade.
MLA: “Inflation from 1960 to 2014: $100 is worth $800 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1960-to-2014/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1960 to 2014. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1960-to-2014/