$100 in 1960 is worth $801 in 2015,
because prices increased 700.7% over that period, an average of
3.85% a year.
$100 in 1960 has
the same buying power as
$801
in 2015
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
700.7%
Average inflation rate
3.85% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$801
Price difference ($100 base)
$701
CPI in 1960
29.6
CPI in 2015
237.017
Inflation in 1960
1.72%
Inflation in 2015
0.12%
$100 in 1960 → 2015
$801
$100 in 2015 → 1960
$12.49
What happened to prices between 1960 and 2015
Between 1960 and 2015, the Consumer Price Index went from 29.6 to 237.017.
Cumulatively, prices increased 700.7%, which works out to an average of
3.85% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1960 bought what
$0.12 buys in 2015: the 1960 dollar
lost 87.5% of its purchasing power over
these 55 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 2015 at the same ratio, 8.01: $1,000 becomes
$8,007, and $10,000 becomes $80,073.
Amount in 1960
Value in 2015
$1.00
$8.01
$5.00
$40.04
$10.00
$80.07
$20.00
$160
$50.00
$400
$100
$801
$500
$4,004
$1,000
$8,007
$5,000
$40,037
$10,000
$80,073
$100,000
$800,733
$1,000,000
$8,007,331
Inflation by spending category, 1960–2015
Between 1960 and 2015, medical care rose the most, up 1903.4%, while apparel rose the least, up 175.5%, against 700.7% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1960
spending costs in 2015, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1960 →
All items (CPI-U)
3.85%
$801
Medical care
5.60%
$2,003
Energy
4.09%
$906
Food
3.91%
$824
Core (all items less food & energy)
3.83%
$792
Transportation
3.51%
$668
Apparel
1.86%
$275
Not shown because the BLS began these indexes after 1960: housing (1967–), recreation (1993–), education & communication (1993–).
Decade by decade: 1960 to 2015
Prices climbed fastest in the 1970s, averaging 7.82% a year, and slowest in the 2010s (1.68% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1960–2015 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
2010–2015
1.68%
8.7%
$801
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1960
$100 from 1960 had already become $400 by
1988, on its way to $801 in 2015; 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: 2015
In 2015, prices rose 0.1% and $100 from 1960 had the buying
power of $801; the year's average CPI of 237.017 is the level
behind every 2015 figure on this page.
2015 was almost a year with no inflation at all. Consumer prices rose 0.1%,
the smallest increase since the 2009 decline, because energy prices kept
falling. Gasoline averaged $2.45 a gallon, down from $3.37 in 2014, and a
strong dollar made imported goods cheaper. The picture was different outside
food and energy: core prices rose about 1.8% as rents and medical costs
climbed.
Incomes finally showed real progress. Median household income reached $56,516,
a large jump from $53,657, and the median new home sold for about $296,400. The
federal minimum wage stayed at $7.25, and a first-class stamp stayed at 49
cents.
The Federal Reserve chose December to end its zero-rate policy, raising the
target range to 0.25–0.50% for the first time since 2006. It moved even
though headline inflation was far under 2%, arguing that the drag from
energy was temporary. Earlier, a currency shift in China in August had shaken
global markets and pushed oil below $40 a barrel. Prices in 2015 ended
the year barely above their 2014 level.
MLA: “Inflation from 1960 to 2015: $100 is worth $801 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1960-to-2015/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1960 to 2015. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1960-to-2015/